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THE 

LIVES OF THE SET EN BISHOPS. 



THE 



LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS 



COMMITTED TO THE TOWER IN 1688. 



ENRICHED AND ILLUSTRATED WITH PERSONAL LETTERS, 

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED, 

FROM THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. 



J 

AGNES STRICKLAND, 

AUTHOR OF 'THE LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF EXGLA2TD,' 




LONDON : 

BELL AND DALDY, 186, FLEET STREET, AND 
6, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 

1866. 



hahso 

.57 



THE LIBRARV 
lOF CONGRESS 

IWA8HINOTOK 



LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET 
AND CHARING CROSS. 



PREFACE. 



The lives of the seven bishops, whom James II. 
committed to the Tower in June, 1688, are now 
offered, to the historical reader, in one volume, in- 
cluding many valuable original letters and papers 
from the Bodleian library. 

This series of episcopal biographies, commencing 
with the birth of Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
in 1617, and closing with the death of Trelawny, 
Bishop of Winchester, in 1720, occupies upwards of 
a century — a century of the most stirring changes 
and remarkable events ; a century marked with civil 
war, and the intrusion of military dictators in the 
universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 

The struggles of those distinguished ornaments of 
the Christian Church, Sancroft, Ken, Turner, Lake, 
and White, when inexorably driven forth by Crom- 
well's Ironsides from their colleges, are touching 
and instructive episodes in the domestic history of 
England during the Commonwealth. We trace the 
proceedings of these learned and zealous divines 
as parish priests .after the Bestoration, and their 
respective elevations to the hierarchy. 



IV PREFACE. 

Their conscientious resistance to the unconstitu- 
tional attempt of James II. to abrogate the penal 
laws by his personal authority, their committal to 
the Tower, trial and acquittal, are clearly but briefly 
set forth from public records. 

The refusal of Bancroft, Ken, White, Lake, and 
Turner to take the oaths to William and Mary, 
their consequent ejection from their bishoprics, and 
the close of their lives in virtuous poverty, are faith- 
fully recorded, with much that is new to the general 
reader. 

The biographies of Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, 
and Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Bristol, who 
took the oaths to William and Mary, and rejoiced in 
a succession of rich sees, close the series. Lloyd and 
Trelawny survived to witness the accession of George 
I., and the sure establishment of the Protestant Reli- 
gion in Great Britain, 



LIVES 



SEVEN BISHOPS OF THE TOWER. 



SANCEOFT, 

ARCHBISHOP OF CAKTEBBUBT. 



CHAPTEE I. 

The revolution which drove the male line of the 
Royal House of Stuart from the throne of Great 
Britain was precipitated by the courageous resistance 
of seven intrepid prelates to the unconstitutional 
exercise of the royal prerogative attempted by James 
II. — a fact no one who dispassionately studies the 
events of that period can doubt. These seven 
prelates were William Sancroft, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, Thomas Ken. Bishop of Bath and "Wells, 
Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely, Thomas White, 
Bishop of Peterborough, John Lake, Bishop of Chi- 
chester, William Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, and 
Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Bristol. 

They were fondly styled the Seven Lamps of the 
Church, and invested by popular feeling with the 
attributes of patriots and martyrs. Their lives form 
a singularly instructive chain of historical biography, 

B 



Z LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

illustrating in a remarkable manner, not only the 
public events, but the domestic manners and customs 
of England from the reign of Charles I. to that of 
George I. 

William Sancroft, with whose life we commence 
this series, was the second son of Francis Sancroft, 
Esq., of Fressingfield, and Margaret, daughter and 
coheiress of Thomas Boucher, of Wilby, in Suffolk. 
He was born on the 30th of January, 1617, at 
Ufford Hall, an ancient white mansion in the parish 
of Fressingfield, with quaint clustered chimneys and 
a long range of broad casement windows, shaded by 
two gigantic yew-trees which flank the gate that 
opens into the court, and overtop the low-eaved roof 
of the edifice. 

Ufford Hall, which is now degraded into a farm- 
house, was then the property and residence of the 
Sancrofts, and was probably derived from a matri- 
monial alliance with some female descendant of the 
ancient Suffolk family whose name it bears. A 
stately chimneypiece of elaborately carved oak, 
moulded into three pillared arches, each arch over- 
hanging a leopard's head, remains in the large 
dining-hall, emphatically termed, by the agricultural 
occupants of the mansion, u the ancient room." It 
has formerly been panelled with oak, ending in a 
curiously-carved cornice, of which some portions yet 
remain ; also two doors on either side the chimney- 
piece of the same rich and curious work. The 
ceiling is supported and adorned with noble cross- 
beams of oak, with fluted sides. 

In this antique mansion, which then was sur- 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 3 

rounded with primrose-studded meads, the childhood 
of William Sancroft was spent under the paternal 
care, in happy companionship with his brother and 
six sisters. 

He received his education at the grammar-school 
at Bury, where he distinguished himself no less by 
his rapid advance in his studies, in which his pro- 
gress far exceeded the expectations of his masters, 
than by his exemplary conduct and early piety. 

In his eighteenth year he was matriculated at 
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which his uncle, 
Dr. William Sancroft, was then master. Persevering 
in the steadfast career of virtue and diligence he 
had commenced at school, he acquired great pro- 
ficiency in the various branches of classical learning, 
poetry, and history, but spent the greater portion of 
his time in the study of theology. He took the 
degree of bachelor of arts in 1637, being then in his 
twenty-first year, and continued to pursue his studies 
with unremitting fervour at the University. 

He subsequently experienced a severe affliction in 
the loss of a beloved friend and companion, whose 
death he mentions to his own father in a touching 
letter, dated Emmanuel College, May 27, 1641, in 
which he says — 

" Dear Father, — The sad news which I shall tell 
you you know already ; but give me leave to weep it 
over again into your bosom, and that will be some 
ease to mine. I have lost the companion of my 
studies, my friend by choice, my brother in affection, 
I shall sum up all if I tell you I have lost my dearest 
Arthur Bownest.* * * * 



4 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

"Besides those abilities, natural and exquisite, 
wherewith God had enriched him — besides that 
virtuous disposition and those many powerful attrac- 
tions in his carriage, whereby he won the love and 
affection of all who had the happiness of knowing 
him — he possessed deep and unfeigned piety. 

" I was at his burial, and helped to lay him in the 
bed of rest ; and now there is nothing left for me to 
do but to love his memory and imitate his virtues, 
which God give me grace to do. He was mortified 
to all worldly things long before he died. Yet, 
father, I know he found not more difficulty to part 
with anything than with me, his unworthy friend, so 
dearly did he love me. I know he is now a glorious 
saint in heaven, and it is but self-love that makes 
me thus bewail his loss. Sleep on, blessed soul, 
upon the downy lap of eternity ! Thy name shall 
always be to me as an ointment poured forth, and 
when I forget thee, let this be my punishment, to 
feel another as great a loss." 

Bancroft received the degree of master of arts in 
the spring of 1641, and became a candidate for holy 
orders in the autumn of the same year. The spirit 
of profound humility and love in which the accom- 
plished young scholar devoted his talents, his learn- 
ing, and energies to the duties of his sacred vocation, 
are thus expressed in filial confidence to his father, 
in a letter dated September 10, 1641 : — 

" I have lately offered up to God the first-fruits of 
that calling which I intend, having common-placed 
twice in the chapel ; and if, through your prayers 
and God's blessing on my endeavours, I may become 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 5 

ail instrument in any measure fitted to bear His 
name before His people, it shall be my joy and the 
crown of my rejoicing in the Lord. I am persuaded 
that for this end I was sent into the world, and 
therefore if God lends me life and abilities, I shall be 
willing to spend myself and be spent upon the work." 

William Sancroft in the same letter communicates 
an offer that had been made to him of the situation 
of a family tutor, on terms which, in these days, 
would have been considered with contempt by a 
butler ; yet he recites them with complacency, in 
these words : " Within this fortnight our master 
proffered me a place ; he would have had me to live 
in an earl's house, where I should have had 30?. per 
annum, and a gelding to ride abroad on upon occa- 
sion. My work should have been only to teach two 
of his children grammar, for there is a chaplain in 
the house already. I durst not accept the place be- 
cause I knew not your mind, and that was my answer 
to our master. However, I am infinitely obliged to 
him, for I had the first offer of it in the college." 

Probably he acted by the paternal advice in not 
accepting a situation offering so poor a compensation 
for a young man combining such distinguished 
talents and brilliant acquirements with high moral 
rectitude of thought and action. In another letter 
to his father, William Sancroft speaks of having been 
recommended by his friend Mr. Weller to undertake 
the care of a rich London merchant's son, whom his 
father proposed sending beyond sea. "I like the 
person," observes our future primate, who certainly 
was no tuft-hunter, " better than if he had been 



6 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

what Mr. Weller mistook him for, noble. For then 
he would have looked for more respect and attend- 
ance, nor should I have had so much influence upon 
him for his good. Briefly, I should then have been a 
servant and not a master, or at least a companion ; 
there would have been much expected and perhaps 
but little done, for generally these great ones prove 
unruly abroad.' 9 

Who does not admire the sound sense and inde- 
pendent spirit which dictated observations like these? 
The situation, however, was. not accepted. William 
Bancroft had another vocation to fulfil. 

The following year he endeavoured to obtain a 
fellowship in Emmanuel College. His kind uncle, 
Dr. Bancroft, was dead, but the mastership of that 
College was in the hands of the learned and loyal 
Dr. Holdsworth, whom our young divine regarded 
with scarcely less love and reverence, and with 
whom he was on the most affectionate and con- 
fidential terms. There was a circumstance which, to 
the tender conscience of William Sancroft, opposed 
an obstacle to his enjoyment of the desired fellow- 
ship, which is thus explained by his own pen in his 
letter to his father of the 4th of April, 1642 :— 

" When I was in the country you know there was 
an overture of assigning some lands to yourself and 
me. Now if it should please God. to dispose of me 
in a fellowship in the college (which is yet doubtful), 
you know the statute, that none can be a fellow who 
hath 20?. per annum. Now my quaere is, whether 
this assignment (though but in trust), especially if 
the trust be not mentioned in the instrument, will 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 7 

not invest me with such an estate as will disable me 
from taking this preferment in the college. That 
nobody knows of it I weigh not, for I desire more a 
thousand times to approve myself to God and my 
own conscience, than to all the world beside. If it 
be not done, I pray, sir, think upon it before you do 
it ; if it be done, and you find it will touch upon 
the statute, let it be undone. I would not be too 
scrupulous nor too bold with my conscience. If it 
be a needless scruple, I had rather show myself to 
have no law than no conscience." 

The divine maxim, "He that is faithful in the 
least will be faithful in the greatest," was fully 
exemplified from first to last in the character and 
career of William Sancroft. 

He obtained his fellowship in the year 1643, but 
he had fallen on evil times ; his loyalty to his king 
and attachment to the liturgy of the Church of 
England effectually barred him from preferment. 
The Scotch Covenant was tyrannically imposed upon 
both universities this year at the point of the sword, 
and many of the fellows were most illegally ejected 
for refusing to fetter their consciences with this 
unconstitutional obligation. The parliamentary 
leader, the Earl of Manchester, visited Cambridge, 
and rudely deposed the master of Emmanuel College, 
Dr. Holdsworth, .who was also the vice-chancellor, 
from all his offices, and cast him into prison. San- 
croft, though known to be the particular friend of 
the master of Emmanuel, was overlooked in this first 
attack on the liberties of the university; yet he 
made no secret of his courageous determination to 



8 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

resist the oppressive edicts of the so-called cham- 
pions of liberty. 

"We live," writes he to his deposed and in- 
carcerated master, Dr. Holdsworth, "in an age in 
which to speak freely is dangerous; faces are 
scanned, and looks are construed, and gestures are 
put on the rack, and made to confess something 
which may undo the actor ; and though the title be 
liberty, written in foot and half-foot letters upon the 
front, yet within there is nothing but perfect slavery, 
worse than Kussian." 

After bemoaning the desolation of Emmanuel 
College, deprived of its head and many of its fellows, 
he glances at the peril of expulsion with which 
himself and those yet remaining were threatened, 
unless they submitted to the power that had invaded 
their academic shades. 

"And what then?" he intrepidly asks. "Shall I 
lift up my hand? I will cut it off first. Shall 
I subscribe my name ? I will forget it as soon. I 
can at least look up through this mist, and see the 
hand of my God holding the scourge that lashes ; 
and with this thought I am able to silence all the 
mutinies of boisterous passions, and to charm them 
into a perfect calm." 

So much respected and beloved was he, and so 
free from personal enemies, that he remained un- 
molested in his fellowship for several years, and took 
the degree of bachelor of divinity in 1648. 

Sancroft bewailed the murder of the king with 
impassioned eloquence in a letter to his father, who 
fully participated in the feelings of grief, indigna- 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 9 

tion, and horror with wliich he regarded that crime. 
The tender ties of affection and sympathy, which 
united the father and son in the most perfect and 
holy of friendships, were severed by the death of the 
elder Sancroft, in February, 1649. 

" What I feared is come to pass," writes Sancroft 
to Mr. Holdsworth. " It hath pleased God to take 
away from us my dear father, the sole prop of this 
now ruined family. His tender sense and appre- 
hension of the public calamities, together with the 
burthen of sixty-eight years and a violent fever with 
which it pleased God to visit him, have ended the 
life in which all ours were bound up. On Sunday 
night, about ten of the clock, he went hence. 
Yesternight, at eight, I made hard shift to get 
hither, where I found a sad family, and mingled up 
my tears with theirs. Good friend, let me have thy 
prayers to assist me in this saddest loss that ever I 
sustained in this world. I shall haste out of this 
sad place as soon as the duty I owe to the comfort of 
the widow and orphans, and some care I must share 
in gathering up the broken pieces of this shattered 
family, shall be over ; haply both may yet exact a 
fortnight. In the meantime, I prithee, redouble 
thy care for my pupils, especially for the sick." 

Sancroft now held the post of tutor at Emmanuel 
College, and the friend to whom he writes was at 
this season acting as his deputy. 

On Sancroft's return to Cambridge, a fresh trial 
awaited him. The dominant faction usurping the 
name of Parliament, supported by the army, had 
framed an oath called the Engagement, more strin- 



10 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

gent and even less excusable than the Covenant, for 
the purpose of supporting them in their illegal and 
despotic authority. By this oath all persons were 
required to swear to maintain the Government as it 
was then established, without king or House of 
Lords, and those who refused were declared in- 
capable of holding any office in Church or State. 
This oath was pressed upon both universities. San- 
croft steadily refused to take it, though assured that 
the loss of his fellowship and all his academical 
employments would be the result. 

So greatly, however, was he respected and beloved 
in the college, that the penalty was not enforced for 
a while. 

"Some would persuade me," writes he to his 
brother, Thomas Sancroft, " that I have some secret 
friend who doth me good offices, though I know it 
not. How r ever, brother, it is a comfort to me that I 
am sure of a friend in you, and if the worst happen, 
which I still expect, that I have a retreat with you, 
which still you so lovingly proffer. I thank you for 
your readiness to entertain my pupil with myself, 
but I shall not make use of your kindness in that 
particular if I may avoid it, for if I go hence I desire 
privacy above all." 

His ejection from his fellowship, though long 
delayed, finally took place. 

In July, 1651, he was driven from Cambridge, 
after having been an honoured resident there for 
seventeen years. He resided for a time at Triplow, 
in Cambridgeshire ; then retired to his native village 
in Suffolk, and took up his abode with his brother 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 11 

Thomas. He alludes to the perfect solitude of this 
place in one of his letters to his friend Mr., after- 
wards Sir Henry North, in these words : — 

" From hence you cannot expect I should tell you 
anything, but that I have here thick shades and cool 
walks, but no company in them, except that of my 
own thoughts." 

He spent five or six years at Fressingfield, and 
occupied his leisure in writing a satirical work en- 
titled, " Modern Policies, taken from Machiavel, 
Borgia, and other choice authors," for the purpose 
of holding up to deserved contempt the political 
villanies of the successful party. He also success- 
fully controverted the Antinomian doctrines then so 
prevalent, in a treatise entitled " Fur Prcedestinatus" 
which excited great attention. His most important 
avocation was assisting in a collation of the Vulgate 
translation of the Xew Testament with those of Beza 
and other modern theologists of the Geneva school. 
He w r as now deprived of the income derived from his 
fellowship, and cut off from increasing his pecuniary 
resources by the college tutorship, no one who re- 
fused to take the oath of Engagement being allowed 
to reside at either of the universities. He had in- 
herited a small estate at Fressingfield at his father's 
death, and on this his economical habits enabled him 
to live, and to extend his beneficence to many of his 
distressed friends, who, like himself, had been ejected 
from their fellowships and collegiate homes for con- 
science' sake ; and were destitute of private means of 
maintenance. 

During his residence in Suffolk he was seriously 



12 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

uneasy at the unwise engagement into which one of his 
sisters had entered after her first husband's death, to the 
great vexation of her family, having set her mind on 
marrying a covetous, ill-tempered, worthless fellow. 
One evening, when William Sancroft had visited her, 
she slily slipped an orange stuck full of cloves into 
his pocket, intending it as a little surprise, and for him 
afterwards to roast and sift sugar over it, in order to 
make a drink familiarly called a bishop, by putting 
it into a jug of claret when it should be sufficiently 
roasted. Her philosophical brother, pretending not 
to understand the pleasant joke, took the opportunity 
of addressing a metaphorical letter to her on the cir- 
cumstance, deprecating the unsuitable alliance of a 
sour bad orange with excellent cloves. No one who did 
not understand the preparation of an orange that was 
intended to make a bishop, would be able to enter 
into the gist of the following quaint fraternal letter 
which is thus indorsed by Sancroft : — 

* To my sister Frances, token I feared she would 
marry T. Brock.* 

"Deak Sister, 

u Though, when I saw you last but once at your 
house, you were in the humour of giving much and 
receiving nothing again for it ; yet, because I sup- 
pose it was your particular disposition in favour of 
one person only, I shall count myself obliged to 
return some acknowledgments at least for the present 
I found the other night in my pockets, from your 

* Tanner, lii. 77. 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 13 

kind hand, as I verily believe. And truly I can 
heartily thank you for the cloves, so good they are, 
and sweet, so pure and bright : but, to deal freely 
with you, the orange is, in my opinion, quite nought. 
How fair soever it may seem to you, who can see 
no farther than the outside, 'tis to be suspected near 
at the heart. You may, perhaps, persuade yourself 
'tis a sweet orange ; but I fear, whoever tries it 'twill 
prove a very crab. 'Tis indeed of the largest size, 
and bigger than most oranges ; yet I should rather 
choose a less, so it were a Civill (Seville orange). And, 
which is worst of all, 'tis so miserably dry (at least, 
as far as the spices can read) that it will suck up all 
the juice of the cloves, which will not get a drop 
of moisture back again. So that, although I dare 
not disjoin what your hand alone hath joined, yet, 
since I hope you have not made them for sure, but 
they may be severed, I could wish you would part 
them, and let the cloves keep their sweetness to them- 
selves ; and then how fragrant and precious will they 
be to all that come within the scent of you ! But 
if it must be otherwise, I shall sadly stand by at a 
distance, and see the event, which I fear will be this : 
the cloves being exhausted, and robbed of their sweet 
juice and fragrancy, will wither away, and fall out of 
their places. While the orange, being thus enriched, 
and further secured by his thick and tough rind, will 
gape for another, and perhaps after that another set 
of cloves, which will be all served in the same manner. 
And what pity 'tis so sweet a spice and so sour a 
fruit met, let all that are impartial judge. 

"I have done ; and if you either understand not, or 



14 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

believe not what I have written, I could heartily wish 
you did both as fitly as I do ; which, God knows, I 
wdsh not for any interest of mine own (for what can 
it be ?), but merely and only for your good ; and be- 
cause I cannot, to the best of my apprehension, any 
other way more approve myself, 

" Your faithful friend, and truly loving brother, 

«w. a 

'« Fres. April 9, —55." 

Sancroft was residing with a family in Lincoln, 
some time in the year 1655. He writes from thence, 
in reply to a long letter from his eldest brother, who 
had been detailing family news, on which his com- 
ments are very amusing, especially in regard to the 
valetudinarianism of their sister Grenling, a young 
widow in comfortable circumstances, but who made 
every one very uncomfortable with her needless 
domestic labours and complaints of bodily sufferings 
and delicacy of health. " For my sister Grenling, 
if tenderness grows upon her, which is not strange in 
so thin a body, she must meet it with proportionable 
care of hersel£ As far as I may have leave to put in 
my conjecture at such a distance, I should attribute 
her rheums and colds either to her Sunday journeys, 
when she goes hot into church and sits herself cold 
there with wet feet, or to her every day dairy 
dablings so early in the morning. A good double 
gelding (meaning a strong horse that w r ould carry 
double) would remedy the first, the keeping another 
servant the second ; and why she should deny herself 



SANCBOFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 15 

either of thern, and more ease in all regards than 
hitherto she hath allowed herself, especially having 
wherewithal to maintain all this, and more, God be 
thanked ! and none that depends on her to be 
provided for, I cannot divine. Charge her, therefore, 
that she be not nice to take her portion of what God 
hath given her, and that she make much of herself, 
if not for her own sake yet for so many of her friends 
that love her ; that she cherish her tender body with 
warmth this winter season ; and since she hath not 
domestic company, that she bid her friends welcome 
that come to see her out of compassion or affection ; 
and assure her from me, than ease, warmth, good diet, 
and cheery company, there can be no better remedy 
till a husband come. 

" I am glad you had so merry an hour at the 
warming the shop. I wish heartily your choir had 
been fuller, not only by those who should have come 
and would not, but by one who would gladly have 
been there if he might. Present my loving respects, 
I pray, to all who were pleased to remember me 
there, and particularly to the housekeepers. Tell 
my brother Drowett that my suit fits well ; only desire 
him to pay the tailor, which I see by the bill he hath 
not done ; for it being uncertain when I shall come 
into the country I am loth the poor man should stay 
so long for his money." Sancroft does not forget 
a kind mention of his father's widow, for he says, 
"I am glad my mother was at your meeting at 
Stradbroke ; I pray present her my humble duty, 
and tell her I wish her all contentment and happiness 
in her new abode." 



16 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

He then adverts to the melancholy subject of 
public affairs, and gives a shrewd but cautious hint 
of the grinding military tyranny under which the 
once free and happy realm of England was at that 
time suffering, and dared not complain ; since the 
boasted constitutional la^s were overthrown, trials by 
jury at an end, and all ranks of people were coerced 
by local courts-martial under the domination of 
Cromwell's major-generals, who inflicted fines, for- 
feitures, imprisonment, and even death at pleasure. 
Modern historians scarcely deign to mention these 
facts, and instead of describing the domestic miseries 
of civilized society, the loss of commerce and decay 
of trade, the absence of manufactures, the want of 
useful and ornamental employment, and the utter 
collapse of literature and art under the Protectorate, 
they extol the merits and virtues of Cromwell and 
his Ironsides. It is only in the local histories, the 
diaries, and private letters of that dark period, we 
see what their doings actually were, and marvel at 
the ignorance of their eulogists ! 

In November, 1657, William Sancroft left England, 
having made up his mind to travel. On his arrival 
in Holland, his first resting-place, the fame of his 
learning and eloquence having preceded him, he 
was honoured with an invitation to preach a sermon 
before the eldest daughter of his late royal master, 
Princess Mary of Orange, mother of William III. 
There was some idea of appointing him to be one 
of her chaplains, but it was not carried into effect. 

While he was residing at Utrecht, in the spring of 
1659, he wrote the following beautiful letter to his 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 17 

brother, on the death of their stepmother, his father's 
second wife : — 

" May 30, 1659. 
"Dear Brother, 

"Yours of May 3 I received the 18th of the 
same ; and in it, as I ought, lamented the news of 
my mother-in-law's death. 'Tis an object I will fix 
and charge upon my memory, and often represent 
to my thoughts my dear father lying buried between 
his two wives ; and though I am now ready to wander 
farther from you, yet will I hope one day to return 
and find my last home at his feet, which is my 
desire. 

" Upon the news you send me, it cannot be un- 
seasonable to reflect a little upon our mortality, 
especially there being now none left upon earth who 
gave to us those superior relations of father and 
mother, scarce of uncle or aunt ; so that we stand 
in the front of the battle, and in order of nature must 
look to be the next spoils of death's all-conquering 
dart. Let us not then flatter ourselves, brother ; for 
in earnest we grow old ; and 'tis strange that of so 
many as we are, none have yet laid their heads in 
the dust ; which we shall do with greater confidence 
and comfort if betimes we provide and prepare for 
it ; nay, and with joy too, if we consider how wretched 
a world we bid farewell to. God Almighty send the 
next generation a more comfortable pass through it 
than we are like to see." 

At this time his narrow finances were improved by 
the posthumous payment of a debt of 200?. due to 

c 



18 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

him from a Mr. John Gayer, who bIso bequeathed 
an annuity of sixty pounds a year to him for life. 

He was thus enabled to indulge his munificent 
spirit by relieving many of the destitute English 
exiled divines, and among others the learned Dr. 
Cosin, who, when preferred, after the Restoration, to 
the bishopric of Durham, failed not to testify his 
grateful remembrance of the aid he had received in 
his time of need from the generous William Bancroft. 

In company with his friend, Mr. Eobert Gayer, 
who bore all the expenses of their tour, Sancroft 
travelled through Italy, rested at Geneva on the 
w r ay, visited Venice, and made a considerable stay at 
Padua, where he entered his name as a student at 
the university. 

While at Rome, in May, 1660, he received the 
joyful tidings of the Restoration, and returned to 
England early in the autumn of the same year. 
Sancroft was selected to preach the sermon in West- 
minster Abbey, November 18, 1660, on the conse- 
cration of his friend, Dr. Cosin, to the bishopric of 
Durham, and of six other bishops. This was his first 
public appearance, and his preaching was greatly 
admired. He was then in his forty-fourth year, in 
the full vigour of intellect, improved and chastened 
by the sweet uses of adversity, and was modest and 
retiring in his manners. 

He was immediately chosen by his grateful friend, 
Cosin, Bishop of Durham, for his domestic chaplain ; 
and the next year appointed as one of the royal 
chaplains by Charles II., having materially assisted 
in the revision of the Liturgy which was then made. 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 19 

He was one of the three supervisors of the press 
when the New Book of Common Prayer, containing 
the alterations and the Services for the Restoration 
and the Martyrdom of King Charles I., was printed. 
Burnet affirms that Bancroft was the author of these 
services, but of this there is no proof. A very in- 
teresting letter from William Sancroft to his elder 
brother is preserved in the Bodleian Library, which 
shows the lively interest he took in family matters 
at home. 

" London, March 10, 1661.* 
" Loving Brother, 

" Tis long since I wrote to you, and long since 
I thought to have come immediately to you. But 
you will excuse me for both when you shall know 
how powerfully I have been hindered. On Saturday 
I sent to take a passage in the Cambridge coach, and 
meant to have come thence immediately to you, God 
permitting ; but before I slept, I found myself stopped 
by those who have right to command me. I know 
not well when this new business will be at an end, nor 
can foresee whether I shall be licenced to attend my 
lord into the North, when he goes, which will be pre- 
sently after Easter. And yet I confess I have invi- 
tation enough to go thither ; he having now made 
me a prebend of Duresme, and given me one of the 
best livings in that country, which lies very con- 
veniently for me, within 4 miles of Duresme, in the 
pleasantest and healthfullest place of the bishopric. 
The revenue is competent and fair, and there is 
nothing to be wished amended in all, but that it 
stands so far from the sun and my dearest relations. 
* Tanner, xlix. 148. 



20 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

I shall hope to tempt some or other to go along with me, 
at least when I shall be settled there ; without which 
I shall lose much of the contentment I should other- 
wise promise myself there. If nobody will be so 
kind to me, at least I shall be so kind to myself, and 
you all, as some time every winter to see you, my 
oath obliging me to attend the king my master one 
month every year, which at present is January, and 
not like to be altered. God send you, and my sister, 
and us all, joy of your young daughter, Katherine, 
in naming of whom did you look forward to the coming 
Queen? or back to our great-grandmother? or to 
her Godmother present ? or all ? However it were, 
God bless her, and all yours, and all our dear friends 
about you, whom I pray salute particularly in my 
name. If it be possible, I will see you before I go 
northward, though I do but see you. I have for- 
gotten at what time that 100?. due from my brother 
Jacob is payable by his bond; but would gladly 
have it payed in as soon as it shall be due (or sooner, 
if that day be long hence), and returned hither, for I 
have great occasion for money, and had rather make 
use of mine own than borrow. If this letter finds you 
at Harleston, and he be there, send me word next 
post what I am to expect from him. With my loving 
and heartiest remembrance to yourself, and all friends, 
I commend you all to God's grace, and remain 

" Sir, 
" Your very affectionate brother, 

" W. S. 
" To my very loving brother, 

Mr. Thomas Sancroft, 

of Fressingfield, in Suffolk'' 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

A new era in Bancroft's life now commenced. 
Honours and preferments were showered in quick 
succession on the impoverished recluse of Fressing- 
field. The degree of D.D. was conferred upon him at 
Cambridge by the royal recommendation, preparatory 
to his taking possession of the rich rectory of Hough- 
ton-le-Spring, and his installation as a canon of the 
cathedral of Durham, to which he had been collated 
by the bishop. His venerable patron, in one of the 
very friendly letters which he wrote to him on this 
occasion, adroitly recommended a wife to him in 
these words: — 

u I pray tell the gentlewoman, whom you name in 
the end of your letter, that I take her message and 
acknowledgment sent to me very kindly from her, 
of whom I have a very good opinion ; and, if you 
have so too, I think you cannot choose a better com- 
panion and housekeeper, both at Houghton and Dur- 
ham, than so virtuous a person as she is like to 
make." 

Sancroft's reply to this letter has not been dis- 
covered; but he appears to have stated obstacles 
which he considered insuperable against contracting 



22 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

a marriage with the lady recommended by the bishop, 
for whom, however, he expresses both affection and 
respect ; also that he had promised to give a home 
to his sister, who was to live with him ; for the bishop 
writes, on the 3rd of September, 1661: "That vir- 
tuous person, whom we have now twice mentioned, 
I think will make a good companion for you and 
your sister both. The great care and affection you 
have for her, and the just regard that she hath again 
for you, may, in good time, prevail with you to alter 
your resolution which you formerly had to live 
single ; but do as you think fit to do, and as God 
shall incline your mind. In the meanwhile, I take 
not the difficulties which you mention to be invin- 
cible, either on her part, or much considerable on 
the part of them on whom you say she depends ; and 
truly there cannot be a greater act of charity done 
for her, than to take her out of the danger wherein 
she lives, and prevent her falling into the fire." 
This alludes to something in the private history 
of the lady, of which the biographer of Bancroft can 
give no explanation, as the bishop leaves it a 
mystery. Sancroft, however, decided on continuing 
a single life. His sister Catharine lived with him. 
Both their portraits are preserved at Gawdy Hall, 
the seat of his collateral representative, Sir. Holmes. 
He was chosen Master of Emmanuel College, by 
the fellows, on the 14th of August, 1662, although 
the puritanical party were very considerably in the 
majority there ; but the liberality of his sentiments, 
conscientious principles, and great learning and piety 
commanded such universal respect that his election 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 23 

to the mastership was unanimous, unsought for, and 
wholly unexpected by him. He found the college in 
a state of great disorganization, and projected con- 
siderable reforms ; but, being called to more im- 
portant labours in the Church, he resigned the 
mastership of Emmanuel at the end of three years. 
He prepared, however, a design for a new chapel, 
and eventually contributed nearly six hundred pounds 
to its erection, as the registers of the college testify. 

In the beginning of the year 1664 he was nominated 
by the king to the deanery of York, and, having been 
elected by the chapter, he was installed on the 26th 
of February. He was at great expense in repairing 
the ruinous deanery, and rebuilding some portions 
where repairs were impracticable, and after all only 
held the preferment ten months, being called, by the 
king's appointment, to the deanery of St. Paul's, 
through the earnest recommendation of Sheldon, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and Humphrey Hench- 
man, Bishop of London. He was also appointed to 
the prebendship of Oxgate in the same cathedral. 
These splendid preferments were gratefully received 
by Sancroft, but with anything but pleasure. He 
had won the affections of the people of York, and 
contemplated ending his days amongst them, and, 
having had the trouble and expense of repairing and 
fitting up the deanery, it was painful to him to leave 
it and encounter the like fatigue and greater outlay 
for a new home. " Only," writes he to his brother, 
one comfort is that now I shall sit down, and may 
justly be confident that my next r remove will be to 
the grave." 



24 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Sancroft had to stem a troubled sea ere he gained 
that tranquil port where "the wicked cease from 
troubling, and the weary are at rest." Never, how- 
ever, had any man, on whom prosperity and honours 
were suddenly and unexpectedly showered, fewer 
enemies than the mild apostolic dean, or friends more 
loving. 

It was about this time that the following touching 
letter was addressed to Sancroft by the widow of his 
friend Wright : — 

" Thurcaston, Leicestershire, 
June 8, 1668. 
"Beverend Sir, 

" The great and due respect and honour which 
my dear husband ever had for your worthy self, 
invites me at this time to communicate the notice 
of his death to you, who I know will condole with 
me the loss of so excellent and worthy a person ; 
for this sad stroke of Divine Providence (without, 
vanity or flattery I hope I may now safely affirm) 
hath reached further than myself, even to all his 
friends and acquaintance, and to the Church of God 
also, the prosperity of which was at all times his 
prayers and his joy. I hope, sir, it will not be 
unpleasing to you, as it will be always comfortable 
to me, to mention the manner of his death, which 
was thus : on May-day last he fell ill, and departed 
the 22nd of that month, all which time he con- 
tinued without any, or with very little pain or sick- 
ness, which he esteemed a great evidence of the 
Divine favour, in regard he had much desired and 
prayed for an easy passage, whereby he enjoyed his 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 25 

memory and understanding perfect to the last instant, 
and thereby, in a most heavenly and comfortable 
way, he was enabled to bequeath his blessing to his 
children, his entire love to his friends and relations, 
and his soul into the hands of Almighty God who 
gave it; and so I cannot say that he is perished, 
but rather, like the dawn into the day, his mortality 
was swallowed up of glory, leaving a dear and 
precious memory to me, his disconsolate widow, 
and three tender children, viz., two sons and one 
daughter. And now, sir, I shall presume further to 
tell you that we find this bitter cup much sweetened 
to us, in the assurance of all friendly favour and 
countenance, as occasion and opportunity shall be, 
from all those in whom he had secured any interest 
of friendship, and in particular from your worthy self. 
His youngest son, that bears his name, he always 
designed for the ministry ; but being now young, not 
six years old, he must wait for your future assistance 
in that way, and in the mean time, till he shall be 
capable, treasure up the assurance of your favour as 
a most precious jewel. For his library, my intent, 
in correspondence to his directions, is to sell it as 
soon as conveniently I can ; in order to which I have 
sent a catalogue of the books to Mr. Allestry, a book- 
seller in London, whom I have desired to communicate 
the catalogue to you, beseeching your advice in the dis- 
posing of them, as I shall ever dispose myself to be, 
"Sir, 
* Your true honoured, and humble servant, 
- To the much honoured, and ' Dobothy Weight. 
Reverend Dr. Sancroft" 



26 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

The first great object that engaged Sancroft's 
attention in his new position was the very important 
one of repairing and restoring the ancient metro- 
politan church, old St. Paul's Cathedral. That 
primitive Christian temple, where the gospel was 
first preached to the people of London, had been 
wantonly desecrated during the Commonwealth, and 
appropriated to the base purpose of a barrack and 
horse quarters for the roundhead soldiers; the 
parliament of 1643, having seized the money and 
materials which the then dean and chapter had pro- 
vided for the repairs of this time-honoured structure, 
and removed the scaffoldings that were erected for 
that purpose. Thus, in consequence of neglect and 
misusage, the whole of the building had become 
dilapidated, and portions of the roof had fallen in. 

Sancroft's plans for the restoration of this cathedral 
were interrupted by the terrible visitation of the 
plague, which ravaged London in the summer of 
1665. In the following year the great fire, com- 
pleting the work of destruction commenced by the 
roundhead spoilers, left old St. Paul's a scorched and 
blackened shell. 

Very energetic, nevertheless, were the efforts which 
the dean and chapter made for the preservation of 
at least a portion of this relic of antiquity, and for 
nearly two years they carried on their work of 
reparation at great expense ; the architect selected 
and employed by Sancroft for this purpose being no 
other than his friend Sir Christopher Wren, then Dr. 
Wren, professor of astronomy at Oxford. 

In his ardent desire to save the old cathedral, 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 27 

Sancroft had disregarded the opinion of Wren, that 
the attempt would only end in disappointment, and 
he writes, April 25, 1668, the following particulars 
of the fulfilment of Wren's prediction : — 

"What you whispered in my ear at your last 
coming hither is now come to pass. Our work at 
the west end of St. Paul's is fallen about our ears. 
Your quick eye discerned the walls and pillars gone 
off from their perpendiculars, and I believe other 
defects, too, which are now exposed to every common 
observer." He ends by entreating Wren to come 
and bring his excellent designs. 

Finally, it was agreed to abandon the hopeless 
attempt of repairing the ancient ruinous . structure, 
and to erect a new cathedral suited to the wealth 
and increased importance of the metropolis of the 
British empire. Sancroft contributed from his private 
means the sum of fourteen hundred pounds, probably 
his all of ready money, to the subscription that was 
opened for commencing the work, besides devoting a 
liberal annual sum from the emoluments of the dean 
and chapter of St. Paul's, which, through his 
frugal, judicious, and conscientious management, 
were daily increasing. It was an arduous and an 
anxious time for him, as London was almost bereft 
of churches. 

Paul's Cross, Charing Cross, and the ancient cross 
in Chepe, those useful stations around which the 
wayfaring, houseless poor, the ragged, barefoot 
children of misery, undeterred from the privilege of 
public worship by the imposition of pews and the 
insolence of pew-openers, had been wont to congre- 



28 LIYES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

gate, under the canopy of heaven, to hear the gospel 
preached in the good old times, had been demo- 
lished by the destructives of the commonwealth ; and 
Sancroft perceived the urgent necessity of hastening 
the erection of St. Paul's Cathedral, if only to supply 
the people with a spacious place of worship in some 
measure adapted to their wants and their spiritual 
destitution. 

The first stone of the stately fane, which now 
excites the admiration not only of England but the 
whole world, was laid in 1675, under the superin- 
tendence and care of Sancroft. Neither delays nor 
the base system of jobbing, which in the present 
century pollute national works and national charities, 
were permitted by him to interfere with the erection 
of the metropolitan cathedral of the reformed Church 
of England. The work was performed conscien- 
tiously, quickly, and well. The glorious structure of 
modern St. Paul's rose from the ashes of its lamented 
predecessor with such wonderful celerity, that in ten 
years the whole plan of the edifice was developed, 
the walls of the choir and aisles were finished, toge- 
ther with the north and south porticoes, and the great 
pillars of the dome carried to the same height. 

Sancroft also rebuilt the deanery of St. Paul's at 
the same time, and bestowed his attention in supply- 
ing the spiritual destitution of the populous hamlet 
of Shadwell, which had then no endowment for a 
minister of its own, and formed a part of the populous 
parish of Stepney, where it was impossible for one 
church to accommodate the inhabitants. In conse- 
quence of his unwearied exertions, an Act of Parlia- 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 29 

ment was procured in the year 1670, constituting 
Shadwell a separate parish. Sancroft gave up a 
portion of his estate as Dean of St. Paul's for the 
churchyard and parsonage. 

His zeal for the augmentation of the poorer 
livings, which occasionally fall to the lot of the most 
deserving of the English clergy, induced him at this 
time to add to the miserable endowment of the 
vicarage of Sandon, in Hertfordshire, of which he was 
now the patron. Seven poor livings were in like 
manner enriched by this disinterested ecclesiastic. 
He also endeavoured to use his personal influence 
with many of the rich clergy by writing persuasive 
letters, entreating them to assist their poorer brethren 
from their~ abundance. One glorious light of our 
English Church, Dr. Isaac Barrow, followed the 
example of his friend. Our Church has reason to 
remember Sancroft with gratitude, for his self-denial 
and charitable ' exertions led the way to the institu- 
tion of " Queen Anne's Bounty." Burnet daringly 
claimed the credit of inducing Queen Anne to her 
Act of Bounty, but Sancroft's well-known facts speak 
for themselves, as to who suggested it by the irre- 
sistible argument of example. 

The Archdeaconry of Canterbury had been con- 
ferred on Dr. Sancroft by the king in 1668, but he 
held it only two years, finding it interfered with his 
arduous duties as Dean of St. Paul's. He was also 
Prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation. 

On the death of Sheldon, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, which occurred somewhat unexpectedly, Novem- 
ber 9, 1677, the king — who had, during the building 



30 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

of St. Paul's Cathedral, peculiar opportunities of 
becoming acquainted with the conscientious and 
unworldly character of the apostolic dean, his zeal 
for the service of the Church, great learning, modesty, 
and mild temper, and prudent management of eccle- 
siastical property — pitched on him as the most proper 
man in the realm to be invested with the primacy of 
England. In this opinion the Lord Chancellor and 
other members of the Council fully coincided. His 
Majesty, intending to communicate his intention to 
Sancroft in a private interview, directed Chiffinch to 
let the Dean of St. Paul's know that he required his 
attendance immediately at Whitehall. The dean, 
who was no courtier, and, as usual, busily occupied in 
distributing his alms and spiritual comfort to the 
needy poor in the east of London, could not at first 
be found, at any rate in the purlieus of the palace, at 
a time when the vacant see of Canterbury rendered 
Whitehall the centre of attraction to all the more 
worldly-minded clergy. 

Sancroft happened to be at the Bishop of London's 
house when Chiffinch traced him out, and told him 
" that his Majesty must speak to him that afternoon, 
at the office at the foot of "Whitehall Stairs." So 
little did Sancroft anticipate the brilliant preferment 
awaiting him, that he was a little alarmed at the 
royal message, imagining perhaps that some of his 
charities had been misrepresented at Court, and he 
had been considered guilty of comforting and re- 
lieving the king's enemies, for he exclaimed, 
" His Majesty wants to speak to me ! what have I 
done ?" 



SANCR0FT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 31 

At five o'clock that day, December 30th, he 
attended, in obedience to the King's command, at 
Mr. Chiffineh's parlour, and received, to his great 
surprise, the announcement that it was his Majesty's 
pleasure to appoint him to the primacy. He replied, 
with characteristic humility, that he was most unfit 
for so important an office ; pleaded his solitary 
habits, his poverty, and ignorance of courtly life, and 
concluded by entreating his Majesty to bestow this 
great appointment on one who knew better how to 
comport himself regarding it. King Charles listened 
to all these genuine expressions of noli episcopari, 
and then replied pleasantly, " You must take it, as 
you are quite homeless, for I have given away 
your deanery of St. Paul's over your head to Dr. 
Stillingfleet." 

Sancroft then fell back on his poverty with this 
most naive declaration : — 

" I was a rich man once," observed he to his king, 
"for I had fifty pounds beforehand in the world. I 
put it in the hands of a merchant of the city of 
London, to be ready when wanting. He broke, and 
lo ! I lost it all. From that time I resolved never to 
be worth one penny again. I have not a farthing at 
present ; therefore I must be relieved from the 
burden of this high preferment. I have not where- 
withal to pay the crown its fees and first-fruits." 

These the king graciously promised to excuse, and 
further assisted him in some of the expensive items 
requisite to his new dignity, by presenting him with 
a state barge and a coach, both veterans, to be sure, 
in the service of royalty, but possessing the capa- 



32 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

bilities of being rendered, by new painting and* 
emblazoning, fit for the use of this primitive arch- 
bishop, who protested his inability to provide the 
outward things necessary for the unwelcome dignity 
that was thrust upon him. This reluctance was 
finally overcome, and his consecration as Archbishop 
of Canterbury took place in Westminster Abbey, 
January 27, 1678. 

Dryden, in his political poem, " Absalom and 
Achitophel," introduces the character of Sancroft 
under the name of Zadoc the priest, and commemo- 
rates his meek, unworldly spirit, and the king's 
reasons for elevating him to the primacy, in these 
lines : — 

" Zadoc the priest, when shunning power and place, 
His lowly mind advanced to David's grace." 

Great disappointment among the ambitious church- 
men of that day was the result of Bancroft's appoint- 
ment. The soldier-prelate, Compton, did not conceal 
his anger. O'Brien, Earl of Thomond, recently con- 
verted from Eomanism, thought proper to fling a 
dart of his Irish wit at Compton, when conversing on 
the new primate in company with the Bishop of 
Durham. "My lords," said he, as they came from 
the Chapel Royal at Whitehall, " you have all been 
played a Newmarket trick ; but you see, God Al- 
mighty's rule doth sometimes hold. He has exalted 
the humble and meek, and kept down the mighty 
from the seat." 

It has been invidiously asserted by Bishop Burnet 
and his copyists that Sancroft owed his elevation to 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 33 

the primacy to the influence of the Duke of York, 
who considered him a fit person to further his designs 
in favour of Komanism — an assertion wholly incon- 
sistent with the zealous and unwelcome attempt made 
by Sancroft, soon after his consecration, to induce the 
duke to return to the communion of the Church of 
England. Sancroft requested the venerable Dr. 
Morley, Bishop of Winchester, who was much be- 
loved and respected by the king and the Duke of 
York, having attended Charles I. during all his 
troubles, and after his murder followed the royal 
family into exile, and faithfully continued his unpaid 
ministration to them and their servants at Paris and 
Breda, to accompany him to the conference which his 
Royal Highness consented to hold with them on this 
all-important subject. Sancroft was the speaker, and 
addressed the duke in a very eloquent and persuasive 
speech, from which the following is a brief extract : — 
" What we are now about to say to your Highness 
is that which Heaven and earth have long expected 
from us that we should say, and what we cannot 
answer it to God or man if we omit or neglect, when 
we have an opportunity, which your Royal Highness 
is pleased at this time to afford us. And, therefore, 
hearken unto us, we beseech you, that God may 
hearken unto you ; and let it be no grief nor 
offence unto you, if, with that freedom which be- 
comes good Christians, loyal subjects, and true 
Englishmen, we lay before you at this time some 
of the many grievances and just complaints of 
our common mother, the holy, but most afflicted 
Church of England." 

D 



34 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

After a just eulogium on that Church, as the purest 
and best on earth, he makes this touching appeal to 
the duke's feelings for having forsaken her : — 

" You were born within her then happy pale and 
communion, and were baptized into her holy faith. 
You sucked the first principles of Christianity from 
her, the principles of the oracles of God, that sincere 
milk of the Word, not adulterated with heterogeneous 
or foreign mixtures of any kind. Your royal father, 
that blessed martyr of ever glorious memory, who 
loved her, and knew how to value her, and lost his 
all in this world for love of her, even his life, too, 
bequeathed you to her at the last. 

"When he was ready to turn his back upon an 
impious and ungrateful world, and had nothing else 
left him but this excellent religion (which he thought 
not only worth his three kingdoms, but ten thousand 
worlds), he gave that to the queen in legacy amongst 
you. For thus he spake to the king, your brother, 
and in him all that were his : ' If you never see my 
face again, I require and entreat you, as your father 
and as your king, that you never suffer your heart to 
receive the least check or disaffection from the true 
religion established in the Church of England. I tell 
you that I have tried it, and after much search and 
many disputes, have concluded it to be the best in 
the world.' " 

After this powerful appeal to James's filial love 
and reverence for his royal father's opinions, San- 
croft adverted to his early attachment to the 
Church of England, and the satisfaction his assiduous 
attendance at public worship had given to the 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 35 

ministers of the Church. " You stood," observes the 
eloquent primate, " as it was meet, next to the throne, 
the eldest son of this now despised Church, and in 
capacity to become one day the nursing father of it ; 
and we said in our hearts, it may so come to pass 
that under his shadow, also, we shall sit down and be 
safe. But alas ! it was not long before you withdrew 
yourself by degrees from thence (we know not how, 
nor why ; Cod knows) ; and though we were loath at 
first to believe our fears, yet they proved at last too 
mighty for us ; and when our eyes failed with looking 
up for you in that house of our Cod, and we found 
you not, instead of fear, sorrow filled our hearts, and 
we mourn your absence ever since, and cannot be 
comforted." 

Sancroft scrupled not in plain words to reproach 
James for always withdrawing from the House of 
Lords when prayers were read. " Now," proceeded 
he, with pathetic earnestness, "you stab every 
one of us to the heart. Now, you even break our 
hearts, when we observe (as all the world doth) that 
we no sooner address ourselves to Heaven for a bless- 
ing upon the public counsels (in which you have 
yourself, too, so great and high a concern), but 
immediately you turn your back upon us. We 
pray," continued he, " for your Eoyal Highenss by 
name, and can you find it in your heart, sir, a heart 
so noble and generous, so courteous, too, to throw T 
back all these prayers, and renounce them as so 
many affronts and injuries to Heaven and to you. If 
We who now stand before you, sir, should declare (as 
we do at present, and we hope it misbecomes us not) 



36 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

that we do now actually lift up our hearts, with our 
hands, unto God in the heavens, that he would be 
pleased to endue you with His holy spirit, to enrich 
you with His heavenly grace, to prosper you with all 
happiness, and to bring you to His everlasting 
kingdom ; can you withhold your soul from going up 
together with our souls, one entire sacrifice to Heaven 
to so good and so holy a purpose ? Or, if you can, 
which seems indeed to be the sad state of the case, nor 
is that action of yours (withdrawing from the prayers), 
in the common acceptation of mankind, capable of 
fairer construction, blessed God, what shall we say ?" 

After some indignant remarks on the narrow and 
exclusive views of the Church of Rome, Sancroft added: 
" It is more than time, sir, that you consider seriously 
between God and your own soul, when you two meet 
together alone at midnight, what you have done, and 
where you are ; that you remember whence you are 
fallen, and repent ; that at length you open your eyes ; 
and we beseech Almighty God (who only can) to open 
your heart to better and more impartial information. 
* * * ' Search the Scriptures whether these things be 
so or not.' " 

He then respectfully offered his own assistance and 
that of the other bishops to the sailor prince, whose 
skill in the science of theology was, as he shrewdly 
suspected, but small, to explain the differences 
between the two Churches, and assures him they would 
make the conference as short and easy as possible. 
" A plain text or two of Scripture," continued he, 
"and a plain obvious matter of fact, recorded in a 
hundred books that are in our own language, and in 



SAXCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 37 

every man's hand, are all we shall trouble your Royal 
Highness with ; and from these so few and humble 
promises, we doubt not, by God's assistance, to be 
able to evince that your Eoyal Highness is bound in 
conscience, and as you tender the welfare of your 
immortal soul, immediately to quit the communion 
and guidance of your stepdame, the Church of Rome, 
and then to return to the bosom of your true, dear, 
and holy mother, the Church of England." 

The duke listened attentively, and with his wonted 
courtesy to Bancroft's exhortation, which occupied in 
all nearly half-an-hour, without offering the slightest 
interruption; but as soon as he had concluded, ob- 
served, " that it was painful to be pressed on the 
subject of his religion just before the meeting ot 
parliament, as anything of that kind must increase 
the prejudices now prevailing against him." He then 
asked Sancroft whether he had come by the order of 
the king, or at the suggestion of the bishops. San- 
croft replied, " that his Majesty knew of their inten- 
tion, but that it originated with the bishops." 

The duke observed, " that he had not the slightest 
dotlbt of the good intentions of himself and some 
others of their order, but could not help suspecting 
that those who had urged that measure intended to 
do him an injury." He added, " that it would be 
presumptuous in an unlearned man like himself to 
enter into controversial disputes with persons of their 
profound erudition and eloquence ; but he would 
have acquainted them with the reasons of his con- 
version if he had thought the occasion a proper one 
for so doing, and his leisure had permitted." He 



38 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

then begged them not to take it amiss that he was 
compelled, by the great pressure of business, which 
at that time claimed his time and attention, to dismiss 
them without entering further into the subject they 
pressed on his attention. 

The popular delusion and agitation excited by 
Titus Oates' monstrous fulminations, false accusations, 
and perjuries, purporting to be revelations of a 
Popish plot for the murder of the king and destruc- 
tion of the Protestant religion, broke out soon after 
Bancroft's failure to induce the Duke of York to 
return to the communion of the Church of England. 
The natural alarm excited by the unfortunate seces- 
sion of the heir presumptive of the crown to the 
Eomish creed, caused the absurd fictions of Oates to 
pass muster with the multitude. Even good, con- 
scientious men overlooked the discrepancy of his 
statements, and believed them. 

The jails were crowded with persons whom Oates 
denounced as agents and suborners of the pretended 
plot, and several persons were pronounced guilty and 
executed on very shallow grounds. 

William Howard, Viscount Stafford, an aged 
Eoman Catholic peer, was arrested and lodged in the 
Tower, and very strictly confined, on the accusation 
of being one of the principal contrivers of this alleged 
plot. The king requested Sancroft, on the 21st of 
January, 1678-9, to visit that unfortunate nobleman 
and hear his confession, for he had sent word to his 
majesty that he had something of great importance 
to reveal, which he would communicate to no one 
but the king or the Archbishop of Canterbury. 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 39 

Sancroft has left a curious holograph record of the 
interview, which has rested unpublished among the 
Tanner MSS.* for nearly two centuries, but as an 
authentic document of that momentous period is not 
unworthy of attention. 

" I took the warrant to the lieutenant," records 
Sancroft, " and asked whether his Majesty would 
command me to say anything to the Lord S. 
from him ? He answered ' No. I was only to 
receive what he (Lord Stafford) told me, and imme- 
diately acquaint his Majesty with it.' When I came 
to the Tower, and had access to the Lord S., he 
called his servant out of his inner chamber, and 
desired the guard to keep him without the door, that 
he might not overhear w T hat was spoken. Then 
seating me and himself as far from the door as he 
could, and speaking in a low voice, desiring me to 
do so too, he by all this caution raised in me great 
expectation of some mighty discovery. 

"He began with a profession of 'his great and 
deep sense of his Majesty's favour in tendering him 
so long since his precious pardon, which he should at 
all times thankfully receive, with all the dutiful 
acknowledgments which a loyal heart is capable of; 
but that he could not accept of it as it was then 
tendered, without wronging truth and himself, in 
confessing a crime of which he was wholly innocent ;' 
and this he desired me to tell the king, and to beg 
his excuse therein." 

This certifies a fact not generally known, that 

* Vol. xxxix., Bodleian Library, Oxford. 



40 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Charles II. had been persuaded that there was a real 
plot, sufficiently to offer Lord Stafford a pardon 
before he was brought to trial, provided he would 
acknowledge the crime of which he was accused, and 
disclose all he knew about the designs of the con- 
spirators. " Conditions which, as an innocent man," 
he truly declared " it was impossible for him to 
comply with." "He went on," continues Sancroft, 
"to say that he took it very unkindly; and here 
his tears broke out and interrupted his discourse 
awhile ; but having resettled his countenance, he 
w r ent on, that he took it. very unkindly, that having 
known the king and been known of him ever since 
the king was seven years old, and having had ever 
since a personal love and affection to him, the 
king should now use him so severely as to commit 
him to close prison, not suffering his wife and 
children to come to him, nor allowing him the air of 
the Tower, which he complained had injured his 
health." Sancroft replied "that he ought not to 
blame the king for any unkindness in the matter, 
since he was accused of the deadlv and horrible 
treason of conspiring to compass the king's death, 
and that all persons so accused were subjected to the 
like rigorous imprisonment ; for though to be accused 
did not make a man guilty, yet it subjected him to 
all the sad restraints of which he complained." 

The unfortunate nobleman protested his innocence 
of all concern or knowledge of the alleged conspiracy ; 
on which Sancroft, who certainly appears to have 
been possessed with a strong idea of his guilt, told him 
"that he had not said anything different from what 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 41 

he had previously done to the lords of the council 
who had been to examine him, but that he had led 
the king and himself to suppose that he had some- 
thing to disclose which would be worth coining so 
far to hear." 

Then the noble prisoner began to speak of Dates, 
and the infamous life he had led before he pretended 
to become a Catholic ; but Sancroft stopped him, by 
bidding him reserve all such matters till his trial, 
where he would have full scope for everything he 
could say against Oates to invalidate his testimony. 
"Hereupon," continues Sancroft, "he told me there 
was one thing he could not help informing the king of. 
That a little before Tongue and Oates first discovered 
the plot to the king, they two and a third, whose 
name he knows not, and one Digby (to whom the 
late Earl of Bristol gave a legacy, and said in his 
will that he deserved much more) and Mr. Blood, 
met day after day, for some time, at a house about 
the Hay market (an alehouse, he thinks), where their 
business was not eating or drinking, but writing and 
copying papers, burning some and transcribing 
others, and that one was overheard to say to the 
rest, ' We must make them agree.' 

" I asked him who heard these words, but he could 
not, or would not tell. He desired me, with much 
earnestness, to tell the king of this. I told him 
that I had a higher obligation to do that than his 
request, for the king had commanded me to go back 
directly to him and tell him what should pass 
between us. He then desired me to beg of the 
king that he would conceal this information, for if he 



42 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

should be so happy as to be acquitted at his trial, 
Blood, if he knew he had mentioned it, would cut 
his throat." 

Stafford bitterly complained that he was denied 
en, ink, and paper, to which Sancroft replied it was 
the usual consequence of close imprisonment. Stafford 
then said he " desired only to write to the king in 
the presence of the lieutenant, and for him to take 
away the letter as soon as closed, together with the 
pen and ink." " I the rather consented to ask of the 
king this liberty for him," observes Sancroft, " because 
I had a surmise, that being checked by me in his 
career against Oates, he might possibly have a 
design to communicate something more of it, or 
something of more moment, which he thought not fit 
to trust me with, by letter, to the king. In con- 
clusion, he repeated his protests of his innocence, 
and said that when he should come to die, for he 
verily believed that would be the event of his trial, 
notwithstanding the caution he had used before, lest 
Mr. Blood should harm him after his being acquitted, 
he would at the last gasp use the same protestations 
and die in them." 

Poor Stafford's melancholy presentiment of the 
event of his trial was only too truly verified in 
the end. Possibly the strange want of sympathy 
manifested by the otherwise just and compassionate 
primate showed him how little he had to expect 
from the peers temporal of England. 

Sancroft told him " that if, as he professed, he did 
indeed believe that the accusation would cost him 
his life, he, as a Christian, ought to improve the 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 43 

rigorous confinement of which he complained as a 
happy opportunity of searching his conscience and 
preparing himself for death ; and that if he felt he 
had incurred the horrible guilt of which he was 
suspected, it was necessary to confess it." When 
the unfortunate prisoner again protested his utter 
innocence of the charge, Sancroft bade him re- 
flect "whether he had not some unrepented crime 
on his conscience, w T hich might provoke a just God 
to bring him to a grievous punishment." Stafford 
replied "that he had never wronged any one." 
Among the complaints he desired to be represented 
to the king, was that he had not the liberty of 
serving God as he desired. Sancroft then told him 
that if he served God in the best way he could, 
it might prove more beneficial than the way he 
proposed. 

The national monomania of " the Popish plot," as 
it was called, ran its delirious course ; but the only 
concern Sancroft had with it was the above conversa- 
tion with the Viscount Stafford, in the Tower. That 
he was prepossessed with a belief in the guilt of the 
unfortunate old man/ and offended by his protesta- 
tions of innocence, no one who reads his narrative of 
their conversation can doubt ; and that the same delu- 
sion pervaded the majority of the peers who sent the 
hapless victim to the block, is the only apology 
that can be pleaded for their votes as men and 
Englishmen. 

One of Sancroft's first cares, after his accession to 
the primacy, was the restoration of the chapel at 
Lambeth, which had been wantonly desecrated by 



44 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Thomas Scott, the regicide, to whom the archie- 
piscopal domain had been granted by the Bound- 
head parliament in reward of his crimes. Scott 
scrupled not to profane this place of worship, 
by turning it into a carousing place for the 
inebriate orgies of himself and his companions in 
guilt, where, though professedly fighting in sup- 
port of "the true evangile," they habitually danced 
with the wanton and disorderly women who resorted 
to them there every night. 

Not contented with defacing and removing the 
tomb of the venerable Archbishop Parker, who was 
interred there, Scott basely violated the remains of 
the holy man, for the paltry gain of selling the lead 
in which his body was enclosed, and had his bones 
flung on a dunghill. 

Sancroft caused diligent search to be made for the 
insulted relics of his worthy predecessor, and when 
he had succeeded in collecting them he piously 
restored them to their original resting-place, and 
caused a Latin sentence to be engraven on a marble 
slab to mark the spot. The broken monument was 
restored at his expense and placed in the vestibule of 
the chapel, with the addition of a brass plate, inscribed 
with elegant Latin lines of his own composition, indig- 
nantly recording the outrage that had been offered 
to the remains of this good and great man, whom all 
sincere Protestants are bound to venerate as one of 
the Fathers of the Reformation. 

Though Sancroft w r as unfeignedly devoted to the 
welfare of the Church of England, he was greatly re- 
spected by Catharine of Braganza, Charles II.'s Eoman 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 45 

Catholic queen, who paid due attention to all his 
recommendations in the distribution of her charities. 

Henry, Earl of Clarendon, writes to Sancroft, 
from Newmarket, September 9th, 1681 : — " As 
soon as I acquainted the queen with what you 
wrote, her Majesty very readily condescended to 
give her letter to Mr. Bradshaw r , being fully 
satisfied she could not place her charity better 
than on the person whom your grace thought fit 
to recommend. Their Majesties will be at White- 
hall on Wednesday next, and the very next day, 
God willing, I will wait on your grace with the 
queen's letter. In the mean time, I shall give you 
no farther trouble, but most humbly to beg your 
benediction." 

Sancroft' s time was unremittingly devoted to the 
duties of his high vocation, and his revenues to the 
augmentation of the small livings of the Church. He 
secured to the curate and preacher of Maidstone, a 
thickly populated, but miserably endowed parish, a 
better maintenance. The living of his native Fressing- 
field he considerably augmented, and founded and en- 
dowed a parish school, which proved of great benefit to 
that neighbourhood. Instead of renewing the lease of 
the impropriated rectorial tithes of Postling, in Kent, 
he devoted it for the permanent improvement of the 
inadequate income of the vicar. It was to objects of 
this nature that he appropriated the mighty revenues 
of Canterbury ; but with all his munificent charities, 
his self-denial, and unremitting endeavours to 
assist the hard-working servants of the Church, he 
had the mortification of finding himself misrepre- 



46 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

sented and traduced by those who could not imitate 
his virtues. 

He speaks with some bitterness on this subject, in 
a letter written July 5, 1683, to his friend the compt- 
roller : — " To do well and even for so doing to be 
evil spoken of, is many times in this world the por- 
tion of well-meaning men. That a suit concerning 
tithe pay is commenced or threatened by my par- 
ticular direction, or by any direction at all from me? 
is a great and foul slander upon me, whoever is the 
author, of which pray inform yourself particularly. 
And that I intend an augmentation of the chapelries 
to be had out of the purses of the inhabitants, is a 
most malicious calumny. God Almighty knows 
(and better than any man but myself, you know), that 
what I should receive upon the renewing of this 
lease, I intended should be bestowed for the good 
(the spiritual good) and welfare of those inhabitants ; 
and when their heats are over, and their eyes a little 
cleared to look upon things as they are, I hope," 
adds he sarcastically, "they will forgive me this 
wrong. They may consider, if they please, that wise 
men never throw away an opportunity of doing 
themselves good, which for aught they know will 
never return. And sure I am they cannot be certain 
that the next archbishop will, frankly and unasked, 
throw a thousand marks into their laps, to be ex- 
pended entirely for the good of their souls. And yet 
I am prepared and resolved to do this for them ; but 
under my former express proviso, that if they expect 
I should do for them what I am no ways obliged 
to, they should do something also for themselves. 



SANCR0FT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 47 

For both God and man justly abandon those that will 
not help themselves when they may. Had I 
designed my own worldly advantage, I might have 
spared myself and you a great deal of care and 
trouble, and concluded the matter with my tenant, 
without noise, and long since have taken the money 
into my pocket. But I thank God my charity 
to them showed me a more excellent wav. And 
though I am not by them handsomely rewarded for 
it, yet I know who it is that accepts intentions 
and endeavours (if they be real and sincere), and 
writes them up in His book of attempts as actual 
performances. But, though I can thus satisfy 
and comfort myself, I am infinitely unwilling to 
give over a design in which God may have some 
glory and men some benefit, because of the fro- 
wardness of those I have to deal with about it. 
There are a sort of men to whom we must do 
good whether they will or no ; and therefore I will 
give them time to bethink themselves, by holding 
to the resolution I have constantly declared to the 
Lord Cheyney, never to renew the lease, unless it 
may be to the advantage of these unendowed 
chapelries." 

Very closely did the cases of all unendowed 
churches and chapelries lie to the heart of the 
apostolic primate, and strenuously did he labour to 
assist and encourage the disinterested ministers by 
whom they were served. In the meantime he was a 
liberal contributor to all national charities. He con- 
tributed a thousand pounds towards the establishment 
of Chelsea College. His hospitality was unbounded. 



48 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

and the poor of Lambeth were almost entirely fed 
from his kitchen. 

Mild and benevolent as he was in his personal 
demeanour, Sancroft was nevertheless a strict enforcer 
of clerical discipline, and vigilantly put down all 
abuses that came under his observance. He scrupled 
not to suspend Dr. Wood, Bishop of Lichfield and 
Coventry, from the exercise of his episcopal functions, 
on account of his neglect of his diocese and other 
misdemeanours, although Wood was under the espe- 
cial patronage of the Duchess of Cleveland, whose 
son, the Duke of Southampton, was married to his 
niece. Sancroft, however, performed his duty with 
the conscientious intrepidity which formed one of his 
leading characteristics, and the king manifested no 
displeasure. 

The Archdeacon of Lincoln being convicted of 
simony, petitioned the king for pardon, and on his 
Majesty referring the petition to the consideration of 
the archbishop, his grace, in his reply, uses the fol- 
lowing energetic language : — 

" Sire, the crime he stands convicted of, is a pesti- 
lence that walketh in darkness, too often committed 
but very seldom found out. And now there is a 
criminal detected, if your Majesty thinks fit, which 
God forbid, to rescue him from the penalty, the 
markets of Simon Magus will be more frequented 
than ever. Much rather, since he hath the courage 
to appeal to the delegates, to the delegates let him 
go ; which yet, with all the rest, is humbly submitted 
to your Majesty's wisdom and justice." 

When Charles II. lay in his death-agony, Sancroft 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 49 

endeavoured to awaken him to a sense of his spiritual 
danger, by urging the necessity of self-recollection 
and repentance of his sinful and sensual life, and 
warning him " that he was about to appear in the 
presence of One who was no respecter of persons." 
His eloquence was unavailing; Charles had deter- 
mined to die in the communion of the Church of 
Rome. 



E 



50 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BlfeHOPS. 



CHAPTER III. 

A path of peculiar difficulty lay before Sancroft on 
the accession of James II. to the throne of Great 
Britain. The new sovereign was an avowed member 
of the Church of Rome, but nominally the defender 
of the Reformed Faith by law established. Sancroft 
was at the head of the hierarchy of the Church of 
England, to which he was fervently attached, and 
was prepared to maintain it in all its integrity. King 
James had, however, quieted the apprehensions of 
his people by a voluntary declaration to his council, 
on the day of his accession, that it was his intention 
to protect and cherish the Church of England. Thus 
assured, Sancroft performed the solemnity of crowning 
King James and his Queen. No other alteration was 
made in the service than the omission of the commu- 
nion. It was, with that exception, the same precisely 
as the form used by Cranmer at the consecration of 
Edward VI. 

A large fine falling to the archbishop this year, he 
devoted it to the endowment of the chapelries in 
the populous parishes of Rochdale, Blackburn, and 
Whalley, in Lancashire, and providing and paying 
proper ministers, which were greatly needed. He 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 51 

also founded and endowed an excellent parish school 
at Harleston, in Norfolk. 

The first attempt at providing, in a small degree, 
for the spiritual wants of the English colonies in 
America had been made in the reign of Charles II., 
and apparently under the apostolic care of Sancroft, 
which facts are to be gathered from the petition of 
the people of Maryland, that his grace would inter- 
cede with James EL, to supply them with funds to 
build a church at Colvert Town, in that province, and 
to grant them a minister to supply the place of the 
one sent out by Charles EL, whose death was regarded 
as a great calamity. This petition is backed by a 
letter to the primate from Mrs. Mary Taney, who 
gratefully acknowledges the sympathy and aid the 
colony had received from him. 

" To the Most Reverend the Archbishops and the rest 
of the Might Reverend the Bishops* 

" The humble Petition of Mary Taney, on the 
behalf of herself and others his Majesty's sub- 
jects, inhabitants of the Province of Maryland. 

" Sheweth, 

"That your Petitioner in her Petition to the 
king's Majesty, setting forth, That the said Province 
being without a church or any settled ministry, to 
the great grief of all his Majesty's loyal subjects there, 
his late Majesty King Charles the Second (of blessed 
memory) was graciously pleased to send over thither 

* Tanner, xxxi. 13S. 



52 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

a minister, and- a parcel of Bibles, and other church 
books of considerable value, in order to the settle- 
ment of a church and ministry there. 

" That the said Minister dying, and the Inhabit- 
ants (who have no other Trade but in Tobacco) 
being so very poor that they are not able to maintain 
a Minister, chiefly by reason of his Majesty's Customs 
here upon Tobacco are so very great, which causes 
the Inhabitants (who are not able to send it hither) 
to sell it there to the merchants at their own rates. 
By means whereof so good a work as was intended 
by his said late Majesty is like to miscarry, to the 
utter ruin of many poor souls, unless supplied by his 
Majesty. Praying his Majesty that a certain parcel 
of Tobacco (of one hundred hogsheads or thereabouts) 
of the growth or product of the said Province may be 
custom free, for and towards the maintenance of an 
orthodox Divine at Colvert Town, in the said province, 
or otherwise allow maintenance for a Minister there. 

Your Petitioner, therefore, most humbly prays 
that your Lordships will be pleased, not only 
to mediate with his Majesty, and in your pe- 
titioner's behalf to request Him to grant her her 
desire in the said Petition, But likewise that 
your Lordships will vouchsafe to contribute 
towards the Building of a Church at Colvert 
Town aforesaid, as your Lordships in Charity 
and Goodness shall think meet. 

And your Petitioner (as in duty bound) shall 
ever pray. 



SANCR0FT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 53 

« July the 14, 1685.* 

"May it please Your Grace, 

" I am now to repeat my request to your Grace 
for a church in the place of Maryland, where I 
live ; but first I humbly thank your Grace that you 
were pleased to hear so favourably and own my 
desires very reasonable, and to encourage the inha- 
bitants to make a petition to the king. Our want of 
a minister, and the many blessings our Saviour 
designed us by them, is a misery which I and a 
numerous family and many others in Maryland have 
groaned under. We are seized with extreme horror 
when we think that for want of the Gospel our 
Children and Posterity are in danger to be condemned 
to infidelity or to apostacy. We do not question 
God's care of us, but think your Grace and the right 
Reverend your Bishops the proper Instruments of so 
great a blessing to us. We are not, I hope, so foreign to 
your Jurisdiction but we may be owned your stray 
flock; however, the commission to go and baptize 
and teach all nations is large enough. But I am 
sure we are, by a late custom upon Tobacco, suffi- 
ciently acknowledged subjects of the Bang of Eng- 
land, and therefore beg his protection, not only 
of our persons and estates, but of what is more dear 
to us, our Religion. I question not but that your 
Grace is sensible that without a temple it will be 
impracticable, neither can we expect a minister to 
hold out to ride ten miles in a morning, and before 
he can dine ten more, and from house to house in 

* Tanner, xxxi. 140. 



54 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

hot weather will dishearten a minister, if not kill 
him. Your Grace is so sensible of our sad condition, 
and for your place and piety's sake have so great an 
influence on our most Religious and Gracious King, 
that if I had not your Grace's promise to depend 
upon I could not question your Grace's intercession 
and prevailing. 500Z. or 600?. for a church, with some 
small encouragement for a minister, will be extremely 
less charge than honour to his Majesty ; and if I 
may in this case mention his Majesty's Interest, one 
church settled according to the Church of England, 
which is the sum of our Request, will prove a nursery 
of Religion and Loyalty through the whole Province. 
But your Grace needs no arguments from me, but 
only this, — it is in your power to give us many 
happy opportunities to praise God for this and other 
innumerable mercies, and to importune His good- 
ness to bless his Majesty with a long and prosperous 
Reign over us, and long continue to your Grace 
the great blessing of being an instrument of good 
to His church. And now that I may be no more 
troublesome, I humbly entreat your Pardon to the 
well-meant zeal of 

" Your Grace's most obedient servant, 

" Mary Taney." 

When King James erected his unpopular Eccle- 
siastical Court, Archbishop Sancroft was appointed 
as one of the commissioners, but he prayed to be 
excused from acting on account of his age and 
infirmities, having nearly completed his seventieth 



SANCR0FT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 55 

year. Sancroft's refusal to involve himself with 
these proceedings displeased the king, who is said to 
have intimated that his appearance at Court would 
be unwelcome. 

It was at this juncture that the Princess of Orange 
thought proper to address the following flattering 
letter to him, by the advice of her clever almoner, 
Dr. Stanley: — 

" The Princess of Orange to Archbishop Saner oft. 

"Loo, Oct 1, 1687. 

"Though I have not the advantage to know 
you, my Lord of Canterbury, yet the reputation you 
have makes me resolve not to lose this opportunity 
of making myself more known to you than I could 
have been yet. Dr. Stanley can assure you that I 
take more interest in what concerns the Church of 
England than (in) myself; and that one of the 
greatest satisfactions I can have is to hear how that 
all the clergy show themselves as firm to their 
religion as they have always been to their King ; 
which makes me confident God will preserve His 
Church since He has so well provided it with able 
men. I have nothing more to say, but beg your 
prayers, and desire you will do me the justice to 
believe I shall be very glad of any occasion to show 
the esteem and veneration I have for you. 

" Marie. 
" To the Archbishop of Canterbury r ." 

The tone of Sancroft's answer, instead of savouring 



56 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

of disaffection, rather pleads apologetically for his 
misguided sovereign : — 

"It hath seemed good to the Infinite Wisdom/' 
wrote the archbishop, " to exercise this poor Church 
with trials of all sorts and of all degrees. But the 
greatest calamity that ever befel us was that wicked 
and ungodly men, who murdered the father (Charles 
I.), likewise drove out the sons, as if to say to them, 
' Go, serve other gods,' the dreadful effects of which 
we feel every moment." 

This was as true as it was reasonable. The youth 
of the sons of Charles I., spent among Eoman 
Catholics in the places of their expatriation, had 
predisposed them to the religion with all its entice- 
ments of sight and sound that they witnessed around 
them in early life. The Stuart princes did not seek 
the Eoman religion, but were driven into it. 

" And though," Bancroft continues, "this (were it 
much more) cannot in the least shake or alter our 
steady loyalty to our Sovereign and the Eoyal 
Family, yet it embitters the comforts left us, it 
blasts our present joys, and makes us sit down with 
sorrow in dust and ashes. Blessed be God, who hath 
caused some dawn of light to break from the eastern 
shore in the constancy of your Eoyal Highness and 
the excellent prince." 

Sancroft speaks of himself as an old man sinking 
under the double burden of age and sorrow. He 
continues with tender and paternal expressions to the 
princess, who, like Mary, had chosen the better part, 
and signs himself "her daily orator at the throne 
of grace." 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 57 

The next communication between Mary and San- 
croft was in the beginning of the year 1688, when 
the Princess of Orange had received that remarkable 
letter from her father, describing to her his alteration 
of religion. He was certainly led by her mother, his 
first wife, Anne Hyde, into the Eoman Catholic pro- 
fession, and confirmed in it by the long and virulent 
sermons against it, the only spiritual pasture provided 
by Dr. Tillotson. The princess was very proud of 
her skill in controversial argument, and very desirous 
that the Archbishop of Canterbury should admire it 
as much as she did herself. But her former letter, 
pretty and condescending as it was, had not been 
responded to according to her expectations. The 
Princess of Orange had, however, at last, an almoner 
who suited her much better than saintly Ken or 
apostolic Hooper, or even than quaint simple old 
Covel. The courtly Dr. Stanley undertook the 
chaperonage of the private and confidential letters 
between the father and the daughter, which he 
hereby offers to the perusal of one whom all circum- 
stances led to be a violent opponent of the father. 
How could the princess and her present spiritual 
adviser doubt that showers of praises must fall upon 
her from the pen of Sancroft ? 

" Dr. Stanley to the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

" The Hague, Jan. 24, 1687-8. 

" I suppose your Grace hath heard that the King 
hath not been wanting to press his daughter here 
to be favourable to popery ; but lest you should have 



58 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

heard more than is true, I presume to acquaint your 
lordship with what hath passed, her Eoyal Highness 
being pleased to make me privy to it, and giving me 
express leave to communicate it to your Grace. 
Whatever reports have been raised, King James hath 
scarcely ever either spoken or written to our excel- 
lent princess, to persuade her to popery, till our 
excellent princess," continues Dr. Stanley, " seeing 
this letter, written with the king's own hand, was 
resolved to write an answer herself, as her father 
desired, without consulting any of us (her chaplains), 
that he might see she was very ready to give an 
account of herself. The very next day being post 
day, she made haste, and wrote a letter to King 
James of two sheets of paper (which she afterwards 
read to me), which truly I can, without flattery, say 
was the best letter I ever saw r , treating King James 
with that respect which became her father and her 
King, and yet speaking her mind freely and openly, 
as became the cause of religion, and that she hoped 
that God would give her grace to live and die in that 
of the Church of England." 

Dr. Stanley kindly offered the primate the copy 
of this letter ; indeed he must have sent it to him, 
for he begs that his grace would be pleased to write 
his commendations of the princess, and secretly send 
them to Dr. Tillotson, who would forward them to 
her Koyal Highness ; " and if your grace doth take 
some notice of her carriage in this affair, as I have 
related it, I believe it will be very acceptable to 
her." Stanley eulogized the controversial abilities 
of the princess, and intimated that "she would be 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 59 

highly gratified by Sancroft writing somewhat in 
commendation of her letter." 

The archbishop shrank from the impropriety of 
discussing the private correspondence between the 
royal father and daughter. With all his caution, it 
was, however, impossible to avoid a collision with the 
king. James, who was governing without a parlia- 
ment, thought proper to reiterate his '" declaration for 
Liberty of Conscience " in the spring of 1688, and, by 
an order in council, dated May 4, required his bishops 
to send it to their clergy, with orders for it to be 
read in all churches on Sunday, the 27th of May. 
This declaration amounted to an announcement that 
it was the king's pleasure, by the exercise of his 
royal prerogative, to dispense with the penal laws 
and acts of uniformity, leaving every man free to 
worship God according to his own conscience. But, 
as it was no part of the duty of the clergy to pro- 
mulgate the royal declaration, and as the unhappy 
fact that the sovereign was not a member of the 
Church of England caused his motives to be regarded 
with suspicion, Sancroft called a meeting of prelates 
and eminent churchmen at Lambeth, in which, after 
long and earnest consultation, they resolved to 
address a petition to the king, " praying to be ex- 
cused from reading or distributing his late declara- 
tion for Liberty of Conscience," stating " that their 
objections proceeded neither from want of duty or 
affection to his service, but from motives of conscience, 
because it was founded on a dispensing power which 
had been declared illegal by parliament," 

The petition was drawn up and written by Sancroft 



60 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

himself, and signed by him ; Lloyd, Bishop of St. 
Asaph ; Turner, Bishop of Ely ; Lake, Bishop of 
Chichester; Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells; White, 
Bishop of Peterborough; and Trelawny, Bishop of 
Bristol. 

Late as it was, the last-named six prelates passed 
over to Whitehall, but without the archbishop, who 
was in ill-health. The object of the six prelates was 
to obtain a preliminary conference with the Earl of 
Sunderland, to acquaint him with their intention of 
petitioning the king to excuse them from reading 
the declaration, and to get him to ask his Majesty to 
appoint the time and place for them to have the 
honour of presenting it. They earnestly entreated 
Sunderland to read the petition himself, that he 
might explain its purport to the king beforehand, to 
avoid taking his Majesty by surprise. This, if Sun- 
derland had been a faithful minister, he would gladly 
have done, in the hope of softening matters so as to 
avert a collision between the king and his hierarchy ; 
but, being a secret-service man of the Prince of 
Orange, he did his utmost to precipitate the rupture, 
refused to look at the petition, and induced the king 
to see the prelates the same evening, though it was 
ten o'clock. Thus it was that the petition was pre- 
sented by Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, instead of 
Archbishop Sancroft. 

On being introduced into the royal closet, the six 
bishops knelt and presented the petition. The king 
received it with a gracious countenance, and, looking 
upon it, observed, " This is my lord of Canterbury's 
handwriting." 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 61 

" Yes, sir, it is his own hand," replied the 
bishops. 

The king read the paper, and perceiving the in- 
tention to resist his order, folded it up, and said, 
" This is a great surprise to me ; here are strange 
words. I did not expect this from you. This is a 
standard of rebellion." 

" We would lose the last drop of our blood," re- 
plied the presenter of the petition, Bishop Lloyd, 
of St. Asaph, " rather than lift up a finger against 
your Majesty," and this sentiment was echoed by 
the rest. 

" I tell you this is a standard of rebellion," repeated 
the king. 

Down fell Trelawny, the Bishop of Bristol, on his 
knees, exclaiming, "Bebellion, sir! I beseech your 
Majesty not to say so hard a thing of us. For God's 
sake do not believe we are, or can be, guilty of re- 
bellion. It is impossible that I, or any of my family, 
should be so." 

"We rebel, sir!" exclaimed Turner, Bishop of 
Ely. " We are ready to die at your feet." 

"Do you question my dispensing power?" de- 
manded the king, angrily. " Some of you here 
have printed and preached for it, when it was for 
your purpose." 

" Sir," replied White, Bishop of Peterborough, 
" what we say of the dispensing power refers only to 
what was declared in parliament." 

" The dispensing power," observed the king. " was 
never questioned by the men of the Church of 
England." 



62 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

" We are bound," said the Bishop of Bath and 
Wells, "to fear God and honour the king. We 
desire to do both. We will honour you ; we must 
fear God." 

James, with increasing wrath, exclaimed, " Is this 
what I have deserved, who have supported the Church 
of England, and will support it ? I will remember 
you that have signed this paper. I did not expect 
this from you, especially from some of you. I will 
be obeyed in publishing my declaration." 

He dismissed them in anger, with this haughty 
speech : " God hath given me this dispensing power, 
and I will maintain it." 

The same night the petition of the bishops, pro- 
testing against the dispensing power assumed by the 
sovereign as illegal, was vociferated by hawkers 
through the streets of the startled metropolis, in the 
same way as is now done by the vendors of the even- 
ing papers when any remarkable public event has 
occurred, a practice which was then without pre- 
cedent. 

The king, who was exceedingly offended at this 
undesirable publicity being given to what had passed 
in the privacy of his closet, regarded it as an outrage 
on the part of the prelates. He sent a stern inti- 
mation of his displeasure to Sancroft, complaining of 
it as a treasonable misdemeanour. Sancroft replied 
with an expression of deep regret and surprise at 
what had occurred, protesting, at the same time, 
" ignorance of the matter, and great perplexity as to 
how the petition could have got abroad, since he had 
written it out with his own hand to prevent any 



SANCRORT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 63 

treachery on the part of a secretary, so that there 
was no copy, only the original document, and that 
was in his Majesty's own possession." It was, how- 
ever, certain that the petition was sent to press im- 
mediately the bishops left the royal presence : their 
audience did not commence till ten, and before twelve 
their petition was bawled about the streets. There 
were three persons whose after conduct leads to the 
conclusion that the copy was supplied by one of 
them — Lloyd, Trelawny, or Sunderland ; pro- 
bably the last, to whom the king, though he 
pocketed the petition, would naturally submit it 
for consideration on the departure of the bishops. 
The publication of this document rendered the 
breach between the king and the bishops irrecon- 
cilable, and was in the end the means of depriving 
him of the throne. 

Nine days were suffered by the king to elapse 
before he took any decided step tending to demon- 
strate his displeasure with the bishops. At one time, 
as he has himself recorded, he had determined to 
pass the matter over in silence ; but his ill-conditioned 
lord chancellor, Jeffreys, persuaded him that it was 
incumbent on him to punish them for disobedience 
and contempt of his royal authority. The minds of 
the people were so greatly inflamed by the publica- 
tion of the petition, that the king, regarding the 
manner in which this had been done as a most un- 
justifiable breach of confidence, was, in an evil hour, 
induced to summon the archbishop and the other 
subscribing prelates to appear before the council on 
the 8th of June, to answer to such matters of mis- 



64 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

demeanour as should be objected against them, then 
and there. 

In the interim, the petition was approved by five 
other bishops, who had not arrived in time to sub- 
scribe with the other prelates, but now added their 
signatures. 

On Friday, June 8th, at five in the afternoon, the 
appointed time, his Majesty came into the council 
chamber, and the archbishop and the six bishops 
were called in. 

" The king received them graciously," says San- 
croft in his MS. narrative of this eventful scene, and 
the lord chancellor took a paper then lying on the 
table, and showing it to the archbishop, demanded of 
him, " Is this the petition that was written and signed 
by your grace, and which these bishops presented to 
his Majesty ?" The archbishop received the paper, 
but without taking any notice of the lord chancellor's 
query, addressed himself to the king in these words : 
— "Sir, I am called hither as a criminal, which I 
never was before in my life, and little thought I ever 
should be, especially before your Majesty ; but since 
it is my unhappiness to be so at this time, I hope 
your Majesty will not be offended that I am cautious 
of answering questions. No man is obliged to answer 
questions that may tend to the accusing of himself." 

Provoked by this implied distrust, James so far 
departed from his wonted courtesy as to exclaim, 
" Why this is downright chicanery ! I hope you do 
not deny your own hand." 

" Sir," said the archbishop, " though we are not 
obliged to give any answer to this question, yet, if 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 65 

your Majesty lays your command upon us, we shall 
answer it in trust upon your Majesty's justice and 
generosity that we shall not suffer for our obedience, 
as we must if our answer should be brought in evi- 
dence against us." 

" No," said James, " I will not command you. If 
you will deny your owtl hands, I know not what to 
say to you." 

The lord chancellor then desired them to withdrawn 
In a few minutes they were called in again, and after 
they had acknowledged their respective signatures, 
the lord chancellor informed them that it was his 
Majesty's pleasure to have them proceeded against 
for writing and publishing a seditious libel, but that 
it should be with all fairness, in Westminster Hall, 
and required them to enter into recognizances for 
their appearance. Sancroft refused to do so, claim- 
ing their privileges as members of the House of Peers. 
The king told them it was offered as a favour, and to 
save them from any imprisonment, for they might 
return peacefully to their respective places of abode 
if they would enter into recognizances, and he w r ould 
accept the very smallest amount, making them merely 
nominal. They w r ere, however, firm in refusing to 
give them, and were again ordered to retire. 

They were presently joined by the Earl of Berkeley 
from the Council Chamber, who endeavoured to per- 
suade Sancroft and the other prelates to enter into 
the recognizances ; but finding them immovable, he 
returned to the council, and in about half an hour 
the sergeant-at-arms came out with a warrant to 
arrest them, and take them to the Tower ; and with 

F 



66 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

another warrant addressed to the lieutenant of the 
Tower, commanding him to receive their persons 
into safe custody till they should be delivered by due 
course of law. 

When the populace, who were in a most excited 
state, thronging the purlieus of Whitehall to await 
the event of the summons of the seven bishops before 
the Privy Council, saw them led out as prisoners under 
a guard of soldiers, and embarked at Whitehall stairs 
to be lodged in the Tower, they exhibited the most 
passionate demonstrations of sympathy and affection. 
Even the soldiers appointed to guard them knelt and 
implored their benediction. 

The venerable archbishop, whose boundless charities 
and hospitality, during upwards of ten years' residence 
at Lambeth, had endeared him to the hearts of the 
poor, and won the affection and respect of all sorts 
and conditions of people, endeavoured to calm their 
passionate indignation at seeing him injuriously 
treated. He and his companions in durance en- 
treated them " to preserve their loyalty to their sove- 
reign, for they were bound not only to fear God, but 
to honour the king." 

When they entered the barge that was to convey 
them to the Tower, scarcely could the people be 
restrained from rushing into the water after them in 
their enthusiasm. They were cheered from the 
banks as they proceeded down the river, and when 
they reached the Tower, and landed at the Traitors' 
Gate, they were received with more than royal 
honours, for all the garrison, officers as well as 
privates, with a simultaneous burst of feeling, knelt 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 67 

and begged their blessing. Such a scene was never 
witnessed there before, and probably never will again. 
Love for the Church of England was the prevailing 
sentiment, and these seven bishops were regarded 
as its champions. 

It was the hour of evening service, and the 
captive prelates were permitted by the lieutenant of 
the Tower the solace of entering the chapel. What 
a sensation it must have created when these words in 
the second lesson were read, " I have heard thee in 
a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I 
succoured thee. Behold, now is the accepted time ; 
behold, now is the day of salvation." 

The right reverend prisoners were treated with 
the utmost respect by the lieutenant, and allowed 
the liberty of the Tower, and to see any one they 
pleased. They were visited the next day by a 
concourse of the nobility and persons of distinction, 
who had free access to them. 

Twice had the Princess of Orange and Dr. Stanley 
laid siege in good earnest to the loyalty of Sancroft. 
The Tower imprisonment was hailed by them as the 
best chance in their favour that the rashness of the 
king had given them. Such treatment they natu- 
rally concluded would excite a desire of revenge in 
the primate's bosom. Dr. Stanley addressed a letter 
to him by command of the Prince and Princess of 
Orange, expressive of their admiration of the con- 
duct of himself and his fellow-prisoners, and their 
sympathy for their sufferings. Sancroft made no 
response to it. 

: A11 men," wrote Dr. Stanley, "that love the 



u 



68 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Eeformation do rejoice in it and thank God for it, as 
an act most resolute and every way becoming your 
places (bishoprics we suppose he means). But espe- 
cially our excellent prince and princess were well 
pleased with it (notwithstanding all the king's envoy 
here could say) ; they have both vindicated it before 
him, and given me command in their names to 
return your grace their hearty thanks for it, and 
at the same time to express their real concern for 
your grace and all your brethren, and for the good 
cause in which your grace is engaged. And your 
refusing to comply with King James II. is by no 
means looked upon by them as tending to disparage 
the monarchy, for they reckon the monarchy to be 
undervalued by illegal actions. Indeed we have 
great reason to bless and thank God for their High- 
nesses steadiness in so good a cause." 

No response did all these notes of exultation 
elicit from the venerable patriarch of the Anglican 
Church. Bowed down with sorrow, mourning over 
the wounds that beloved church was receiving from 
the king, whose duty it was to protect her, he 
anticipated no very great amelioration of them from 
a foreigner whose belief varied between deism and 
fatalism. 

The imprisonment of the bishops only lasted seven 
days. They were removed from the Tower, on 
Friday, June 15th, by a writ of habeas corpus, to the 
Court of King's Bench, being brought thither by the 
lieutenant of the Tower about eleven o'clock. They 
were received with great respect by the bench, and 
immediately accommodated with chairs, a civility 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 69 

without precedent in cases where the crown prose- 
cuted. The information against them charged 
William, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the other 
six bishops with consulting and conspiring one with 
another to diminish the royal authority, prerogative, 
and power, by maliciously and scandalously fabri- 
cating and writing, under the pretence of a petition, 
a pernicious and seditious libel, and causing it to be 
published, in manifest contempt of the king and 
against his peace. 

The archbishop stood up, and offered a paper to 
the court, containing a plea in behalf of himself and 
the other six, that they should not be compelled to 
answer to the charge at that time, but be allowed 
sufficient time to prepare their defence. This 
request, though contrary to the practice of the court, 
was granted, and the attorney-general gave notice 
that their trial would come on that day fortnight. 
The court admitted them to bail on their own recog- 
nizances, which they did not then refuse to give. 
The archbishop was bound to appear under a penalty 
of 200Z., and each of the bishops in 100?. They 
were then permitted to return to their own homes. 
They were received by the crowd outside the court 
with rapturous acclamations, bonfires were made in 
the streets at night, and enthusiastic demonstrations 
of popular rejoicing continued till morning. 

Short as the imprisonment of Bancroft and the six 
bishops had been, it was productive of the most 
disastrous consequences to James II., by producing 
an irreconcilable feud between him and the Church, 
at that time so dear to the people of England. It 



70 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

was the more ill-judged on his part because it 
deprived the birth of his son — which occurred two 
days after their arrest — of the most important and 
unquestionable of witnesses, the Archbishop of Can- 
terbury ; for if Sancroft had been present on that 
occasion, and deposed that he was in the chamber 
when the prince was born, no one would have dared 
to impugn his testimony. As it was, the Orange 
faction took occasion to convert his enforced absence 
into a presumptive evidence that a spurious child 
had been imposed on the nation. 

The trial of the seven bishops came on at the 
appointed time, June 29th. Westminster Hall and 
all its approaches were thronged with anxious 
spectators. The bishops, when they entered, were 
accompanied by upwards of thirty gentlemen of the 
highest rank. The trial lasted the whole day. The 
jury, being unable to agree, were locked up during 
the night, without fire, candle, or food, to consider 
their verdict. At six in the morning they sent word 
to the lord chief-justice they were agreed. He and 
the other judges accordingly took their places on the 
bench, and at ten o'clock the aged primate, who with 
his fellow-prisoners had waited in a state of trying 
uncertainty all night, were brought into court. 
When the jury, through their foreman, Sir Eoger 
Langley, returned the verdict of " Not guilty," the 
Marquis of Halifax, waving his hat over his head, 
cried " Huzza !" The lords and gentlemen took up 
the shout from him. In an instant it filled the vast 
hall, and was repeated by the crowds waiting in 
Palace Yard and round Westminster Abbey, from 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 71 

whence, like the roll and roar of thunder, it was 
carried in and through the city of London, and 
thence, as fast as it could fly, over the whole kingdom. 

Surrounded by gratulating friends, and followed 
by shouting thousands and tens of thousands, the 
emancipated prelates left Westminster Hall. It was 
St. Peter's day, and the bells were chiming for 
morning prayers. The venerable primate extricated 
himself from the ovations of the excited populace by 
entering the Chapel Royal at Whitehall, attended 
by the six bishops who had been imprisoned, tried, 
and acquitted with him. They now united with him 
in offering up their prayers, praises, and thanks- 
givings for the mercies lately accorded to them. 
The portion of Scripture for the day, substituted for 
the epistle, was part of the twelfth chapter of Acts, re- 
cording St. Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison. 
The acclamations and rejoicings of the people con- 
tinued all day, and were prolonged through the night. 

Illuminations in those days were chiefly done by 
vast voluntary bonfires. The lord mayor did all he 
could to suppress them, but in vain. The window 
illuminations were generally in the form of seven 
golden candlesticks, of which the longest, in the 
middle, represented Archbishop Sancroft, the six, 
surrounding, the bishops. 

A large silver medal was designed and struck on 
the occasion, having a half-length portrait of Arch- 
bishop Sancroft in the centre, and those of the 
six bishops associated with him in his imprisonment 
and trial grouped round him. 

The original oil painting from which this popular 



72 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

group was taken is in the collection of Walter Strick- 
land, Esq., of Cokethorpe Hall, in Oxfordshire, a 
most valuable historic relic, as preserving contempo- 
rary portraits of these seven distinguished prelates, 
who were at that time the objects of popular idolatry. 

The Prince of Orange failed not to send the most 
flattering congratulations to the primate and the 
other six bishops, through Compton, Bishop of Lon- 
don, with whom he was in constant correspondence. 
They returned a polite answer by the same prelate, 
but without in the slightest degree forfeiting their 
dutv to their sovereign. 

During the four stormy months that succeeded 
these events, San croft carefully avoided entangling 
himself with politics, and employed all his thoughts 
and energies in the maintenance of order in the 
Church, and the extension of education. He was 
also desirous of effecting a bond of union with all 
the more moderate grades of Protestant Dissenters, 
by making such concessions as would remove some 
of their objections to join in the worship of the 
Church of England. 

He expressed this generous liberality of feeling in 
a letter to his clergy, dated July 26th, 1688, wherein 
he exhorts them — 

" To have a tender regard to our brethren the 
Protestant Dissenters, when occasion offered to visit 
them at their houses, and to receive them kindly in 
their own, and warmly and most affectionately to 
entreat them to join with us in daily fervent prayer 
to the God of peace for a universal and blessed union 
of all reformed churches, both at home and abroad." 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 73 

The hostile preparations of the Prince of Orange 
interrupted, and indeed prevented, the progress of 
Sancroft's apostolic project " for a comprehension with 
the Dissenters." King James became aware too late 
of the ill-advised course he had been running, and 
issued a command to Sancroft to come to Whitehall, 
accompanied by all the bishops who were in town, and 
give him their candid advice in the present emer- 
gency. The conference took place on the 3rd of 
October, when Sancroft, having obtained full liberty of 
speech, entreated his royal master to desist from the 
unconstitutional acts which had displeased his people 
and placed him in the present painful predicament. 
He went on to recite a long list of grievances, which 
the king promised should be redressed. The arch- 
bishop was then requested by his Majesty to prepare a 
form of public prayer, to be read in all the churches, 
for averting the dangers which threatened the nation. 

The king sent for Sancroft and the bishops on the 
2nd of November, to show them a passage in the 
Prince of Orange's declaration, stating " that he had 
been invited over by several of the lords spiritual 
and temporal." "I am fully satisfied of the inno- 
cence of my bishops," said the king, " yet I think it 
only proper to acquaint you with this statement." 

Sancroft, after thanking his Majesty for his good 
opinion so graciously expressed, protested that " the 
assertion as regarded himself was utterly false, for 
that he had never held the slightest communication 
with the Prince of Orange, nor could he believe that 
any of his episcopal brethren had given him any 
such invitation. For my part," continued he, "I 



74 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

have but one king, him to whom my allegiance is 
naturally due, and which I have voluntarily renewed 
in oaths of homage and supremacy." 

The king, on this, pressed Sancroft and the other 
bishops to draw up and sign a paper expressing their 
abhorrence of the Prince of Orange and his designs. 
This they declined doing, though all verbally pro- 
tested their innocence of having invited him, with 
the exception of Compton, Bishop of London, who 
had really done so, *and now evasively observed, 
" I have given his Majesty my answer yesterday." 
It was couched in these prevaricating words, " I am 
confident that the rest of the bishops will as readily 
answer in the negative as myself." 

The king requested Sancroft and the other 
prelates to come to him again on the 6th of Novem- 
ber, and eagerly demanded if they had brought the 
paper he required. Sancroft said, " They had not, 
for they were men of peace, and would not mix 
themselves up with politics,'' and reminded the king 
how hardly they had been treated only for signing 
and presenting a petition to himself couched in the 
most deferential terms. He took, at the same time, 
the opportunity of complaining of a literary affront 
they had received on the trial from one of his 
Majesty's judges, who had endeavoured to expose 
them to ridicule by criticising the petition as a 
composition, alleging " that they did not write true 
English, and it was fit they should be convicted by 
Dr. Busby of false grammar." 

" My lord," rejoined the king, " this is querelle 
£ Allemand, a matter quite out of the way. I 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 75 

thought this had been all forgotten. For my part 
I am no lawyer. I am obliged to think what my 
judges do is according to law. But, if you will still 
complain on that account, I think I have reason to 
complain too. I am sure your counsel did not use 
me civilly." 

In conclusion, the bishops said they were ready to 
serve his Majesty, either in parliament or with their 
prayers ; and so they parted. 

That Sancroft was of himself inclined to comply 
with the king's request, is proved by a document 
among his papers solemnly denying the allega- 
tion of the Prince of Orange in his declaration, 
but he was probably dissuaded by the Bishop of 
London and the other secret-service men of the 
prince from putting it forth. The feebleness of old age 
rendered him unwilling to act on his own judgment. 

The only occasion on which Sancroft united in an 
address to the Prince of Orange was when the king, 
having sent the queen and infant Prince of Wales 
over to France, quitted London secretly to follow 
them, leaving everything in a state of confusion ; 
and, in consequence of the excited state of the popu- 
lace, it was considered expedient by the peers and 
bishops then in town to assemble themselves at 
Guildhall to deliberate on what was best to be done 
in this emergency. It was then " agreed, as the 
king had withdrawn no one knew whither, to request 
the Prince of Orange to summon a parliament, for 
the purpose of preserving the public peace and 
calming all disorders." Sancroft and the other 
prelates who were at this meeting signed the 



76 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

address, wisely deeming the assumption of the reins 
of government by the Prince of Orange, when the 
chariot of state was left without a ruler, would 
be preferable to anarchy. He manifested, how- 
ever, his loyal affection to King James, by being 
one of the first to wait on him and welcome him 
on his return to Whitehall. This was their last 
meeting.* 

On the arrival of the Prince of Orange in London, 
Sancroft was urged to wait on him, but firmly de- 
clined. Neither would he attend the Convention or 
take his place in the House of Lords, even when a 

* The assertion that Sancroft ever joined in inviting the Prince 
of Orange to assume the reins of government, is satisfactorily dis- 
proved by the following letter from Dr. Stanley, Chaplain to the 
Princess of Orange, to Dr. Hickes, written in 1713, twenty years 
after Sancroft's death. 

"May 26th, 
'■ Sir, 

" I do not remember that I ever heard that the late good Arch- 
bishop Sancroft was thought to have invited the Prince of Orange 
over into England. If any one did charge him with it, I believe it 
was without grounds. All that I can say as to the matter is that, 
Anno 1687, when I came into England from Holland, I confess I 
did desire the archbishop to write to the Princess of Orange, on 
whom I had the honour to attend, to encourage her still to give 
countenance to the Church of England ; but he was pleased not to 
write to her. And afterwards, when we were come over into Eng- 
land, and a report being spread abroad that some of the lords 
spiritual, as well as temporal, had invited the Prince of Orange into 
England, in my communing with the archbishop, I remember he 
said to me, ' I am now glad I did not write to the princess, as you 
desired, for if I had written to her, they would have said that I had 
sent to invite them over.' This is true, and this is all I can say 
of that affair, 

" I am, sir, your faithful Mend, &c, 

"William Stanley." 



SANCEOFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 77 

message was sent to liiin from the peers requesting 
him to come. 

Notwithstanding the feebleness of his constitution 
and general delicacy of health, Bancroft regularly 
attended prayers in the chapel at Lambeth at six in 
the morning, twelve at noon, three in the afternoon, 
and nine at night. He was most sparing and ab- 
stemious in his diet, and temperate in his way of life, 
which has been turned to his reproach by his calum- 
niator Burnet, who styles him " a man of monastic- 
strictness and abstraction from the world, dry, peevish, 
and reserved ;" falsely adding, " so that none loved 
him, and few esteemed him ;" whereas it was scarcely 
possible for any man to be more deeply venerated 
and tenderly beloved. In proof of the universal 
esteem in which he was held, be it recorded that, in 
the midst of these agitating scenes, Bancroft received 
the high compliment of being elected Chancellor of 
the University of Cambridge. He declined this 
honour, pleading his age and infirmities as an excuse, 
and recommended the Earl of Clarendon as a more 
suitable person. The university, however, would 
have no one but the beloved archbishop, and kept 
the post vacant for upwards of two months, in the 
hope of prevailing on him to be installed, but he was 
inflexible. 

He declined the appointment of privy councillor 
to "William, and refused to consecrate Dr. Gilbert 
Burnet, bishop of Salisbury, which refusal fully 
accounts for the false and malicious statements of 
which that unscrupulous writer has been guilty with 
regard to him. It must also be remembered that 



78 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Sancroft had previously incurred Burnet's enmity by 
declining to sign an order granting him access to the 
Cottonian collection of historical MSS. John Evelyn's 
indignant complaints of the loss he had sustained in 
consequence of having rashly lent some of the 
autograph letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, to 
Dr. Burnet, afforded cogent reason to Sancroft for 
that exclusion. 

The very day the Prince and Princess of Orange 
were proclaimed king and queen, the princess sent 
Dr. Stanley and another of her chaplains to Lambeth 
Palace, to solicit the archbishop's blessing for her. 
" Tell the princess," replied the uncompromising 
primate, " to ask her father's ; without that I doubt 
mine would not be heard in Heaven." The chaplains 
had another errand to perform, that of attending 
service in the chapel, to report whether prayers were 
offered there for King James, his queen and son, or 
for the newly-proclaimed sovereigns. Henry Whar- 
ton, the archbishop's chaplain, understanding they 
were to be present, came to the archbishop and asked 
him for his instructions. "I have no new instruc- 
tions to give," replied Sancroft, meaning that no 
alterations were to be made ; but Wharton, who had 
resolved on taking the oaths of allegiance to William 
and Mary, and perhaps thought he was rendering the 
archbishop shrewd political service by affecting to 
misunderstand him, prayed for King William and 
Queen Mary in the chapel. After the service the 
archbishop sent for him in great displeasure, and told 
him " he must either desist from praying for William 
and Mary or cease to officiate in the chapel ; for as 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 79 

long as King James was alive, no other persons could 
be sovereigns of the country." 

William, anxious to conciliate a person so de- 
servedly high in the esteem of all good men as the 
archbishop, nominated him one of his privy coun- 
cillors, but he never acted as such. 

Sancroft was earnestly entreated by the Earl of 
Danby and other members of the new cabinet to 
officiate at the coronation of William and Mary, but 
he positively refused either to crown them or take the 
oaths required. " How can he, who hath sworn that 
King James II. is the only lawful king of this realm, 
or that he will bear faith and true allegiance to him, 
his heirs and successors, take those oaths to an 
usurper ?" wrote Sancroft, in a remarkable paper, 
entitled " The Present State of the English Govern- 
ment Considered," January, 1688-9. 

To those friends and well-wishers who represented 
the injury that would result to his worldly fortunes 
if he persisted in this determination, he replied with 
a smile, "Well, I can live on fifty pounds a year." 
This was less, in fact, than his patrimony in Suffolk. 
A man has little to fear whose pecuniary requisitions 
are limited to so low a scale. 

The court, aware of the affection and reverence of 
the nation for the apostolic primate, hesitated to 
proceed to extremities with him, and merely sus- 
pended him from his office on the 1st of August, 1689 ; 
but the queen, finding him at the end of six months 
immovable in his determination not to violate his 
conscience by taking the oaths of allegiance to her 
and her consort, executed the sentence of deprivation 



80 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

on the 1st of February, 1690, against William, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. She deprived, at the same time, 
Turner, Bishop of Ely ; White, of Peterborough ; Lake 
of Chichester ; Ken, of Bath and Wells ; Lloyd, 
of Norwich ; and Frampton, of Gloucester, for the like 
offence. Lloyd, of St. Asaph, and Trelawny, of Bristol, 
were the only two of the seven prelates committed 
by James II. to the Tower who forfeited their oaths of 
allegiance to him by transferring their fealty to 
William and Mary. The political conduct of these 
prelates gave rise to the popular saying, " King 
James sent seven bishops to be tested at the Tower.* 
Five were proved to be true gold, and two only 
prince's metal." Lloyd was preferred to the see of 
Worcester, Trelawny to that of Winchester. 

Dr. Beveridge, who was nominated to supply the 
place of Ken, in jhe see of Bath and Wells, asked 
Sancroft's advice how he should act. " Though 
I should give my advice, I do not believe you will 
follow it," replied Sancroft. Beveridge assured him 
that he would. " Why, then, when they come to 
ask, say nolo ; and say it from the heart. Nothing is 
easier than to resolve yourself what is to be done in 
the case," answered the uncompromising primate, 
drily. Beveridge refused to accept the see. 

Systematic attempts w T ere made by the base pam- 
phleteers of the period to inflame the passions of the 
mob against the archbishop and his nonjuring 
brethren. They styled them " the Holy Lambeth 
Club," and accused them of designs to bring in 

* Where the mint and apparatus for the assay of metals for the 
coinage then was. 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 81 

popery, of inviting the King of France to invade 
the realm, holding a correspondence with M. de 
Croissy for that object, and composing prayers for 
the success of King James in Ireland. Sancroft 
and the other nonjuring bishops determined to treat 
these calumnies with silent contempt, but the dis- 
semination of a pamphlet of a decidedly murderous 
tendency, entitled, "A Modest Enquiry into the 
Causes of the Present Disasters," convinced them 
that if they regarded the safety of their persons, they 
must no longer permit such calumnious imputations 
to remain unnoticed. They accordingly published a 
vindication, in which, after mentioning the charges 
that had been put forth against them, they deny the 
whole in these w r ords : — 

" We do here solemnly, as in the presence of God, 
protest and declare that these accusations cast upon 
us are all of them malicious calumnies and diabolical 
inventions ; that we are innocent of them all, and 
we defy the libeller to produce if he can any legal 
proof of our guiltiness therein. . . . Who the author 
of this libel is we know not ; but whoever he is, we 
desire, as our Lord hath taught us, to return him 
good for evil. He barbarously endeavours to raise 
in the whole English nation such a fury as may end 
in De- Witting us (a bloody word, but too well under- 
stood). But we recommend him to the Divine mercy, 
humbly beseeching God to forgive him." 

This allusion to the ferocious massacre of those 
great and good men, the pensionary De Witt, and 
his brother the admiral, in Amsterdam, by the 
Orange mob, who had been incited to its perpetra- 



82 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

tion by a false and incendiary accusation, points too 
plainly at the Dutch king, as the suborner of the 
pamphlet, to be misunderstood in those days when 
that dark tragedy was fresh in the minds of men. 

Bancroft did not acknowledge the authority of 
William and Mary, and paid no heed to their sen- 
tence, but continued at the palace, exercising his 
accustomed hospitality and charity, merely observing, 
"that he had committed no crime that could justly 
cause his degradation ; so if the Queen wanted his 
house at Lambeth, she must either come, or send, 
and thrust him out of it by personal violence ; for 
leave it in obedience to her mandate he would not." 

His see was filled up by the appointment of Dr. 
Tillotson, April, 1691, to the primacy; but Sancroft 
continued to keep possession of Lambeth Palace. 
On the administration of the holy communion in the 
chapel after the appointment of his successor, San- 
croft performed the office of consecrating the bread 
and wine himself, one nonjuring clergyman reading 
the prayers, and another . preaching before him. 
Feeling, however, that it would be necessary for him 
soon to withdraw from the palace, he sent for his 
two chaplains, Needham and Wharton, into his 
chamber, and after thanking them for their faithful 
services, told them " the time was now come when 
they must part." 

Needham respectfully inquired, "Why his grace 
said so ?" He replied, " A successor to my benefice 
is now appointed, and 1 can do you no more good, 
while it may be both prejudicial and dangerous to 
yourselves if you remain in my service." 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOr OF CANTERBURY. 83 

They had taken the oaths to the existing govern- 
ment, and he wished not to be a barrier to the pre- 
ferment which would doubtless reward their com- 
pliance ; but with a burst of affectionate feeling, 
Needham exclaimed, "I differ, indeed, from your 
grace in matters of opinion concerning the state, but 
I fear no danger from attending on your person, and 
shall only be too happy if I may be permitted under 
any circumstances to serve you, and I believe my 
brother Wharton is of the like mind." To this 
Wharton assented. 

" Will ye so ?" replied Bancroft. " Then go on in 
God's name !" And both remained as long afterwards 
as he would allow them, and paid him the most 
dutiful attention. 

The archbishop, on the 20th of May, received a 
peremptory order from the queen to quit the palace 
within ten days. To this order he paid no sort of 
regard, and the process of ejectment by law was 
begun without delay. He was cited to appear before 
the Barons of the Exchequer on the first clay of 
Trinity Term, June 12th, to answer a writ of intrusion 
brought against him in the king's name, in which he 
was accused of " having entered vi et armis into 
Lambeth House, part of the king's possessions, in 
the vacancy of the see, and forcibly taken and held 
possession of it." He appeared by his attorney 
several times, but always avoided putting in any 
plea in which the names of the present sovereigns 
were mentioned, or their title acknowledged. Judg- 
ment, of course, passed against the nonjuring arch- 
bishop, and he retired from Lambeth Palace the 



84 LFVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

same evening, June 23rd, attended by his nephew, 
Mr. Sancroft, who was the steward of his household, 
Dr. Painan, the friend of his youth, Mr. Nicholls, and 
Mr. Jacob, not having so much as acquainted his 
chaplains with his intention. He took a boat at 
Lambeth-stairs, and crossed over to the Temple, 
where he went to a private house, called the Pals- 
grave's Head, in Palsgrave Court, near Temple Bar, 
to which he had previously sent his books and 
papers. 

The next morning his two chaplains, Needham 
and Wharton, came to wait upon him. He received 
them affectionately, and asked them to read the 
service of the day, which they did, and continued to 
officiate daily before him for some time. He re- 
mained in that house, of which he only occupied the 
second floor, about six weeks. While there, the 
loyal Earl of Aylesbury coming to visit him, he 
opened the door of the apartment himself to admit 
him. Struck with this token of the reverse of 
fortune that had befallen the deprived primate, and 
the contrast between his present humble abode and 
its mean furniture, from the state with which he was 
accustomed to see him surrounded at Lambeth, the 
noble visitor burst into tears ; and as soon as he had 
conquered his emotion enough to speak, he told 
Bancroft how deeply he was affected at the change 
he saw, and how unable he was to repress his grief. 

"Oh, my good lord," replied the deprived arch- 
bishop, "rather rejoice with me, for now I live 
again." 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 85 



CHAPTER IV. 

Archbishop Sancroft went forth from Lambeth, 
after he had been in the receipt of its large revenues 
fourteen years, poor as when he first entered it, 
taking nothing with him but his staff and his books. 
He had devoted all the incomings of his see to the 
noble objects of amplifying small livings, assisting in 
rebuilding St. Paul's Cathedral and founding Chelsea 
College, in liberal hospitality to the clergy, and bound- 
less charity to the poor, almost entirely feeding those 
of Lambeth. The day after he left the palace he sent 
them a farewell present; his household establish- 
ment there was broken up at the same time, and 
his steward paid all his servants up to the following 
Michaelmas. 

Sancroft left London for ever on the 3rd of 
August, 1691, and arrived at his native village of 
Fressingfield, in Suffolk, on the 5th; thus perform- 
ing the journey, a distance of ninety miles, in two 
days, an uncommonly quick rate of travelling for 
that period. 

" When once I got into the coach," writes he to 
his friend, Sir Henry North, " I resolved, according 
to my usual impatience, to push on the journey, 



86 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

and play it off as fast as I could endure it, and 
accordingly we went at tlie utmost stretch, as you 
have heard. My weariness soon went off, but 
inethinks some weakness still remains." 

In another letter he says : — 

" Our health, G od be thanked, is as it used to be, 
or rather better. The sweet air and quiet of this 
place is much to be preferred to the smoke and noise 
of London." 

His Lambeth chaplain, Henry Wharton, came to 
visit him two days after his arrival at Fressingfleld, 
and found him well and cheerful. Both Wharton 
and his own cousin, the Eev. Mr. Green, offered to 
attend him as chaplains in his retreat, but he replied, 
with thanks, " I must now be my own chaplain ; it 
suits not with my present condition still to keep up 
that piece of state." Besides, the old house was 
too full to have room to accommodate any super- 
numeraries. 

The old paternal mansion, Uflford Hall, to which 
he had returned in his old age, appears, during the 
long term of years that had elapsed from the period 
when he left it in 1657 to travel on the continent, to 
have been the home of his brother and other 
members of his family. Unwilling to disturb the 
domestic arrangements of his married nephews, 
Bancroft had ordered a cottage to be erected for 
himself at the end of the garden, where he might 
live near them, without interrupting them or being- 
disquieted by the noise of their children. This 
cottage home was progressing when the deprived 
archbishop arrived, but not so near its completion as 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 87 

he could have wished, for the workmen had deserted 
their hods, trowels, hammers, and saws, for the more 
agreeable occupation of working in the hay- and 
harvest-fields. 

" We build not," writes Sancroft, "at the rate we 
travelled at, though, hay and harvest being in, we 
have recovered all our gang. Yesterday we had 
thirty or forty at the raising of the gallery, and it 
stands now in my view, from the window I write by, 
like the bones of a dead body which you have read 
upon at Chirurgeons' Hall, tacked together with 
wires ; but it will take so much time to daub and 
tile, to clothe and cover it, and St. Bartholomew is 
so near with his dews and mists, that I despair of 
dwelling in it this winter." 

On the 11th of Xovember the deprived primate 
writes : — 

" Our work without doors ended with the last 
month ; which, had it been as severe as October 
sometimes is, we could not have finished in this 
month; but we have a winter's work still to do 
within doors, in paving, and planchering (Suffolk for 
flooring), and daubing, and ceiling, and plastering. 
and glazing, and wainscoting, making doors, laying 
hearths, etc., etc. ; so that we find it a very trouble- 
some thing to bring a new (as well as an old) house 
over our heads. In the meantime, the old tenement 
is packed as close as it can well be, from end to end, 
with ourselves, and children, and servants, and 
workmen. Yet our contentment here is as great, 
and I should be unthankful should I not acknow- 
ledge that our health is rather better than else- 



88 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

where ; our food plainer, but eaten with a better 
appetite ; our course of employment and action the 
very same, only not scened so illustriously, nor set off 
with such good company and conversation. The 
trouble of visits is well abated, and the hard weather 
and ill ways which are at hand will put an end to 
them, and we shall be in as great retirement and 
solitude as our enemies, or we ourselves, could wish. 
We make shift to say our prayers together daily, 
though not in so much company nor in so proper 
a place as at Lambeth ; but God, I trust, will 
accept us." 

In a previous letter he tells his friend his cough is 
not so loud or troublesome to himself or others as it 
used to be at Lambeth; and now he says, "My 
native air hath been very kind to me." 

Sancroft felt much solicitude for his friend the 
deprived Bishop Ken. 

"It grieves me," he writes, "to have missed, 
when I was so nigh it, the seeing of my reverend 
brother of Bath and Wells. I am not surprised to 
hear that his innocency and courage was so bold as 
to appear openly, but am, I confess, that he did it 
safely. In that condition Gocl preserve him and the 
rest, especially my dear brother of Norwich." 

For himself he refused the proffered civility of a 
friend of having his foreign correspondence trans- 
mitted through the secretary of state's office, or 
franked by any of the government officials. All the 
nonjuring clergy were objects of suspicion, but more 
especially the deprived primate who headed that list. 

" The spirit of calumny," writes he, " the perse- 



SANCR0FT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 89 

cution of the tongue, dogs me even into this 
wilderness." 

In reference to the secluded life he had been 
leading at Fressingfield ever since he had retired to 
Ufford Hall, he says : — 

" I was never so much as once out of this poor 
house and the yards and avenues since I came first 
directly from London into it." 

Those yards and avenues, to which the venerable 
archbishop confined his walks, are still distinctive 
features in the aj3proach to that secluded mansion. 
In consequence of the enclosure of the park-like 
green which then surrounded the house, those 
avenues have now become lanes between cultivated 
fields, but the yards remain unchanged; and we 
could almost realise the form of the venerable 
primate pacing beneath the spreading branches of 
the picturesque yew-trees flanking the entrance-gate 
of the front court, under whose shadow he had 
sported in infancy and boyhood with his brother and 
sisters. 

After he retired into his native Suffolk he allowed 
his beard to grow, which, becoming very long, gave 
him a hermit-like appearance. So much was he 
beloved and revered in that neighbourhood, that 
whenever he appeared in the village the people 
were accustomed to kneel to him for his pastoral 
benediction. 

It is an extraordinary fact that he inspired with 
the most ardent enthusiasm, at this period, one of 
the hardest and earthiest of all mortal minds that 
had been shone on by the light of genius — that of 



90 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Jonathan Swift, who commemorates the primate's 
noble self-sacrifice in his " Ode to Truth," a poem 
little known, but well deserving of being rescued 
from oblivion. We give the following brief quo- 
tation : — 

" Thus Sancroft, in the greatness of retreat, 
Shows lustre that was shaded in his seat ; 
Dim glimmerings of the prelate glorified, 
Which all his purple robings served to hide. 

" Oh, whatsoe'er our levellers deem, 

There are degrees above, I know, 
The angel-muse, herself, 

Has told me so, 
Where souls of purest truth throned in the day, 
Sit clad in light of brighter- woven ray. 
There some high place to Sancroft will be given 
In the metropolis of heaven ; 
Chief of the mitred saints, 
And from archprelate here, 
Translated to archangel there." 

The crowded state of Ufford Hall was unfavourable 
to his studious and reflective habits, and Sancroft 
found it expedient, on the advance of winter, to 
provide himself with a temporary abode till his 
cottage should be completed. The instrument by 
which he appointed Dr. Lloyd, the deprived Bishop 
of Norwich, his vicar in all ecclesiastical matters, is 
dated from his " hired house at Fressingfield, Feb- 
ruary 9, 1691(2)." 

Sancroft did not allow the legality of his de- 
position from the primacy by William and Mary, 
whose title to the sovereignty of England he always 
refused to acknowledge in any way. In the deputa- 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 91 

tion of his office to Dr. Lloyd, he states "that, 
having been driven by a lay force from the house of 
Lambeth, and not finding in the neighbouring city a 
place where he could conveniently abide, he had 
retired afar off, seeking where in his old age he 
might rest his weary head ; but as there were many 
affairs of great moment to be transacted in the 
Church which could be best ordered by one resident 
in London or its vicinity, he appoints Dr. Lloyd his 
vicar, and commits to him all the authority belonging 
to his archiepiscopal office." 

The Eeverend Baptist Levenge, Bishop of Sodor 
and Man, though he had taken the oaths to William 
and Mary, could not refrain from expressing his 
respect and admiration for his old friend and late 
ecclesiastical superior, the deprived nonjuring primate, 
to whom he addressed the following affectionate and 
reverential letter : — 

« March 28th, 1691. 

"May it please Your Grace, 

" Being to take a tedious journey, upon Easter 
Monday I intend to set out to my desolate place, 
my Patmos, your grace used to term it, I cannot 
but send this to beg your blessing and good prayers 
along with me, these dangerous times. 

" I had, ever since I had the honour to know you, 
a very high veneration and respect for your grace, 
nor is my value at all lessened for you by the 
diminution of your fortunes. Calamity is but the 
touchstone of your virtues, and through this cloud 
your sincerity, your constancy, and other excellent 
endowments shine the brighter, and thereupon 



92 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

heighten my esteem for the most pious and admir- 
able owner of them. I dare say no more, for your 
grace's modesty permits it not ; yet still give me 
leave to love and honour you, and, as an abundant 
compensation, be pleased to bestow your benediction 

U P° n « My lord, 

" Your grace's most dutiful son, and 
" Most obliged humble servant, 

"B. S. M."* 

It was not till the 17th of September, 1692, that 
Sancroft's cottage was so far completed as to allow 
of his taking up his abode there. On the 27th of 
that month he writes to. Sir H. North : — 

" I have now slept ten nights in my new lodging, 
and would gladly say, if it so please God, in nido meo 
moriar ; but the changes of the world are so many, 
and the malice of men so great, my lot may be that 
of the prophet, ' Arise and depart, for this is not your 
rest.' If so it be, God's will be done. Behold the 
servant of the Lord, be it unto me according to His 
word." 

His intense desire of peace and quiet in this 
obscure corner of England did not prevent the de- 
prived archbishop from being an object of suspicion 
to the Court, and he was often accused of seditious 
meetings and secret correspondence with the agents 
of his old master. 

* Tanner MSS., vol. xxvi., Bodleian Library. Baptist Levenge 
was appointed Bishop of Sodor and Man, in 1684, when Dr. Lake 
was translated to Bristol. Levenge died in 1698. 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 93 

" I think if I should immure myself between four 
walls," writes the venerable recluse, " I should, not- 
withstanding, be thought to send and receive letters 
and intelligence, I know not whether by the pigeons 
of Aleppo or Leyden, or perhaps by the old romantic 
post, Sir Pacolet on his wooden horse. It is some- 
what strange that I should be accused to one prince 
of having invited his Highness of Nassau to invade 
my native country, and to another of inviting his 
cousin the King of France hither ; wdiereas I should 
as soon have consulted the witch of Endor, were she 
to be found, to bring about anything I desired, as to 
have made either of those addresses. 

Queen Mary could not be satisfied without sending 
spies occasionally to see how the deprived primate 
was engaged. Sometimes her agents found him 
employed in his garden, but mostly in arranging his 
predecessor Archbishop Laud's diary and papers for 
publication. 

Sancroft had wholly weaned his mind from all care 
for the pomps and state which necessarily surrounded 
him at Lambeth. 

" It is long since," wrote he to his friend, " that I 
said of that great pile, even while I was in it, the old 
Leonine verse — ' Nunc mea, nunc hujus, sed post ea 
nescio cujus? When I was suddenly driven out of it 
at eight or nine o'clock at night, I wish it were 
known how cheerfully I turned my back upon it, and 
how soundly I slept the night following under another 
man's roof. But, now in this cottage of my own 
building (this lodge in a garden of cucumbers, questa 
povera mia capanna), I am as well to my contentment 



94 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

as the greatest lie qui late et laxe et magnifice habitat. 
All my fear is, lest I should be forced from hence 
too, for I would fain say, if I durst, as holy Job did, 
' in nido meo moriar? But, alas ! he was mistaken, 
and so may I, should I say so ; and therefoie I lay 
my hand upon my mouth and say nothing ; but as it 
pleaseth God so come things to pass. Sufficient to 
the day is the evil thereof, as wisdom itself said. 
. . . Afford me your prayers, dear friend, that when 
I remove from hence (and that cannot be far off), I 
may, by God's mercy, have a building of God, a 
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 

Sixteen years previously, Sancroft, ever mindful of 
the one great event which must happen to all living, 
had, when Dean of St. Paul's, paid a flying visit to 
his friends and kindred in " the old house at home," 
and chosen the quiet nook in the green churchyard 
of Fressingfield, in the angle between the eastern 
side of the church porch and the southern wall of the 
church. He had thus provided, with a view of pre- 
venting the improper fashion being followed in his 
own case, then and till within the last few years so 
prevalent, of desecrating the house of God with the 
remains of corrupt mortality. 

Nearly opposite to that spot which, while in sound 
health, he had chosen for his domus ultima, Sancroft 
caused a comfortable cottage to be built for the 
parish-clerk, and also a sort of temperance hostelry 
for the shelter and accommodation of persons who 
came from the distant parts of that large scattered 
parish to attend divine worship at Fressingfield 
church, so that they might bring their cold provi- 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 95 

sions there, and take their meal in the recess between 
morning and evening services. These primitive 
edifices still remain in good repair, and greatly add 
to the picturesque effect of that beautiful church- 
yard, which hangs on a gentle green swelling hill. 
The vicarage, with its pretty garden and fruitful 
orchard bowers, is pleasantly seated on an opposite 
eminence above the road, and a little rill runs below 
the white-railed causew T ay. Sancroft 's school is close 
at hand, and has been a blessing to the rising gene- 
rations for nearly two centuries; and under the 
judicious superintendence of the present learned and 
benevolent vicar, the Eev. W. E. Colbeck, for- 
merly tutor of Emmanuel College, continues to 
flourish. 

Sancroft had seen spring twice fling her green 
mantle over the pastoral meads of Fressingfield since 
he had been ejected from his archiepiscopal palace, 
and found rest from the turmoils of public life in his 
native village. The infirmities of age now increased 
rapidly upon him, and he was desirous of devising 
his paternal inheritance to his beloved nephews 
without making a will, which would require to be 
proved in the courts of the new Archbishop of 
Canterbury, the legality of whose title he never 
acknowledged. 

While in this perplexity, Mr. Eoger North, who 
had been the steward of his archiepiscopal courts, 
came to visit him in his Fressingfield cottage, and 
advised him to evade this difficulty by making a 
deed of gift of the property to his nephews, reserving 
a life interest in it for . himself. Sancroft gladly 



96 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

availed himself of this suggestion, and immediately 
acted upon it by requesting Mr. North to draw up 
the deed then and there. Much surprised was that 
gentleman at the small amount of property which he, 
who had been nearly fourteen years primate of 
England, had to devise. " It touched my spirits 
extremely to see the low estate of this poor old 
saint," is Mr. North's comment on the glorious 
poverty of the deprived archbishop. 

In the commencement of August, 1693, Sancroft 
began seriously to apply himself to the self-imposed 
task of editing the diary and papers of Archbishop 
Laud. But it was all too late. The brain at seventy- 
seven is not in a state to support severe literary 
labour, even when undertaken con amove. The 
original of Laud's diary, with many of the papers 
relating to it, lay before him on his desk, and he was 
earnestly employed in noting down his comments 
and observations, when he was stricken, August 25th, 
with the slow, intermittent fever, which put a stop to 
his work and confined him to his bed. 

Anticipating a fatal termination to his illness, he 
expressed an earnest desire to see his late chaplain, 
Henry Wharton, for the purpose of consigning to 
him the completion of his task. Wharton, in the 
mean time having heard of his illness, hastened to 
visit him, and arrived at Fressingfield on the 31st of 
October. Sancroft told him " that he had often de- 
signed to prepare the papers of Laud for publication, 
and having at last set about it in good earnest, he 
had been interrupted by an attack of sickness, that 
would probably end in death, and feeling his own 



SANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 97 

inability to complete the design, he wished to be- 
queath it to his care." He then caused the papers, 
together with all the notes and collections he had 
made on the subject, to be placed in Wharton's 
hands. Fatigued with this exertion, his voice be- 
came indistinct, and on Wharton requiring infor- 
mation on several points, especially how the papers 
came into Archbishop Sheldon's hands, from w T hom 
Sancroft had received them, he answered, "These 
are material questions, but I am weary with speak- 
ing ; my spirits are faint, and I cannot at present 
tell you more — you must come again." 

Wharton revisited him on the 21st of November, 
and perceived that he w T as rapidly drawing near his 
end. Sancroft himself had from the very commence- 
ment of his illness looked death calmly in the face. 
In his greatest sufferings he was accustomed to call 
to mind the example of the Saviour's patience, and 
would say, " As a lamb carried to the slaughter, He 
was dumb and opened not His mouth." 

" That which came nearest to a complaint," re- 
cords the narrator of his closing scene, " was only a 
description of his wasting condition, in these pious 
words, ' Thy hand is heavy upon me day and night, 
my moisture is like the drought in summer.' I am 
low, but must be brought lower yet, even to the dust 
of death ; but though He kill me, yet will I trust in 
Him." 

On the occasion of Wharton's last visit, Sancroft 
bade him look over his papers, which had not been 
opened or put in order since his removal from Lam- 
beth. Wharton commenced the investigation in the 

H 



98 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

presence of his dying patron, and continued it till he 
observed so unmistakable a change come over him, 
that he thought it better to desist and retire from 
the chamber. Sancroft roused himself from the 
death-like faintness that was creeping upon him, and 
took his last leave of Wharton with the kindest de- 
monstrations of affection, giving his blessing twice in 
the most solemn manner as he knelt by his bed-side. 
He expressed, in the most humble manner, " repent- 
ance of all his sins, and his hopes and assurance of a 
better state of existence." 

Henry Wharton scarcely survived his beloved and 
revered patron sixteen months, having only lived to 
publish the first volume of Archbishop Laud's diary 
and remains. He gave the whole credit of his ex- 
traordinary success in his literary and theological 
career to the encouragement and assistance he had 
derived from Archbishop Sancroft, to whom, notwith- 
standing the opposition in their opinions in regard to 
the settlement of the government, he continued 
tenderly attached. 

The arrival of his other faithful chaplain, Mr. 
Needham, was peculiarly welcome to the dying arch- 
bishop, for he had empowered him, at his last visit, 
to fulfil his intention of presenting his choice and 
valuable library of classic and scientific books to 
Emmanuel College, Needham having taken upon 
himself the care of removing them from the ware- 
house at Lambeth, whither they had been sent by 
him previous to his ejection from the palace. The 
mission had been performed satisfactorily by Need- 
ham, who was the bearer of a letter of thanks fron) 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 99 

the master of Emmanuel College, gratefully acknow- 
ledging this important gift and token of the affection- 
ate remembrance of their learned and beloved arch- 
bishop. Sancroft was exceedingly pleased with the 
letter, and signified his wish that the more learned 
and scientific portion of his library at Fressingfield, 
which he had retained for his own use, should, after 
his death, be added to his gift to Emmanuel College ; 
observing, " that he intended part of his books to be 
left for the use of the family there, for instance, so 
much of history, geography, and the arts as might 
form a good library for a gentleman, but that books 
of learning should be sent to the college, there to be 
kept entirely together as a monument of his great 
affection for learning, and the delight he had taken 
in it all his life ; adding, that he was very unwilling 
to have that library dissipated, the collection of which 
had been one of the greatest comforts and pleasures 
of his life." 

After solemnly bestowing his blessing on Needham, 
the dying primate said : " You and I have gone 
different ways in these late affairs, but I trust 
heaven's gates are wide enough to admit us both. 
What I have done I have done in the integrity of 
my heart," 

Mr. Needham modestly attempted to explain the 
motives which had influenced his conduct, to which 
Sancroft replied : " I always took you for an honest 
man. What I said concerning myself was only to let 
you know that what I have done I have done in the 
integrity of my heart. Yea, in the great integrity of 
my heart." 



100 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

He had intended to receive the sacrament from 
Mr. Edwards, the ejected minister of Eye ; but Dr. 
Trumbull, who had formerly been his chaplain, and 
was now a nonjuror, came accidentally to see him the 
day before he died, and he thankfully availed himself 
of his ministry. 

About an hour before his death he told those who 
stood round him that he retained the same thoughts 
of the present state of affairs as those under which he 
had acted ; and that if it were to do again, he should 
quit all he had in the world rather than violate his 
conscience. He concluded by putting up these two 
hearty and earnest petitions to God, " that He would 
bless and preserve His poor suffering Church, which 
by the revolution is almost destroyed, and that He 
would bless and preserve the exiled king, the queen, 
and the prince, and in due time restore them to their 
just and undoubted rights." 

A short time before he expired he called for the 
Book of Common Prayer, and though one was brought 
to him of the smallest print, he himself turned to the 
commendatory prayer in the office for the sick, and 
ordered it to be read. This done he solemnly com- 
posed himself for death, and gently breathed his last 
sigh a little after midnight on the morning of Friday, 
November the 24th. 

He was interred on the night of Monday, Novem- 
ber the 27th, in the spot he had chosen sixteen years 
before, in Fressingfield churchyard. 

A plain, handsome, altar-shaped tomb, with his 
armorial bearings, his mitre, and crosier sculptured 
on the black marble slab that surmounts it, covers 



SANCKOFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 101 

the remains of the venerable primate. The sides are 
faced with white polished marble, veined with grey, 
and bear the following inscriptions, which he had 
prepared with his own hand, with instructions for 
placing them. On the right side : — 

" P.M.S. 
LECTOR, WILHELMI, NUPER ARCHIPR^SULIS 

(qui NATUS in vicinia), 

QUOD MORTI CECIDIT, PROPTER HUNC 

MURUM JACET ; ATQUI RESURGET : 

TU INTERIM SEMPER PARATUS ESTO, NAM HORA QUA 

NON PUTAS DOMINUS VENTURUS EST. 

OBIlt 24° NOV. ANNO DOMINI 1693 ; 

^tatis su^ 77." 
On the left side : — 

" P.M.S. 

" William Sancroft was born in this parish. After- 
wards, by the providence of God, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury ; who, after he had lost all which he could 
not keep with a good conscience, returned hither to 
end his life, where he began it ; and professeth here, 
at the foot of his tomb, that, as naked he came 
forth, so naked he must return. The Lord gave, and 
the Lord hath taken away ; as the Lord pleaseth, so 
come things to pass. Blessed be the name of the 
Lord." 

Over his head the following verse from St. Mat- 
thew, xxiv. 27 : — 

"As 'the lightning cometh out of the east and 



102 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of 
the Son of Man be." 

Though upwards of a century and a half have 
passed away, the tomb and its autobiographical in- 
scriptions remain in perfect preservation. His memory 
is held in traditional veneration bv the villagers of 
Fressingfield, whose forefathers owed their civilizing 
education to his munificent care. A square space, 
richly carpeted with green turf, has been railed off 
to preserve this monument from accidental injuries. 

The entry of Archbishop Sancroft's death is pre- 
served in the parish register of Fressingfield, as well 
as the record of his birth. The assertion of his un- 
scrupulous libeller, Burnet, of his having raised a 
large estate out of the revenues of Canterbury, and 
left it to his family, has been fully disproved in 
Sancroft's documentary life by Dr. D'Oyley, who 
had access to the family papers of his representative, 
Mr. Holmes, of Gawdy Hall. 

The small silver chalice and patina used by San- 
croft in his domestic chapel, and his little clock in 
a black and gold case, are in the possession of Mrs. 
Hopper, one of his collateral descendants, at Starston 
vicarage. His episcopal carved oaken chair, a por- 
tion of his library, together with his most interesting 
portrait in middle life, are preserved at Gawdy Hall, 
the seat of his youthful representative, Sancroft 
Holmes, Esq. 

Swift, a keen and observant contemporary, has 
written this indignant comment in the margin of his 
copy of "Burnet's History of His Own Times," 
" False as hell," against the statement that " Sancroft 



BANCROFT, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 103 

was too intent on enriching his nephew, to have 
courage to oppose the measures of the court." But 
the best contradiction is supplied by Burnet himself, 
in the following heartless sneer at Bancroft's poverty, 
and the frugality necessitated by his narrow means. 
" He died in the same poor and despicable manner 
as he had lived for some years." Truly, false wit- 
nesses require good memories. 

The books presented by Archbishop Bancroft to 
Emmanuel College were valued at 2500Z. In these, 
and in building and furnishing the cottage, which he 
compared to a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, the 
savings of his long life were invested. 

His small estate in Fressingfield was his patri- 
monial inheritance. 

We can scarcely conclude his biography more 
appropriately than with the following lines on his 
last years and death, by the late Rev. William Mit- 
ford, literary editor of the "Gentleman's Maga- 
zine :" — 

" He left high Lambeth's venerable towers ] | 
For his small heritage and humble bowers. 
* * * * 

Now with his staff on his paternal ground, 
Amid his orchard trees he may be found ; 
An old man, late returned, where he was seen 
Sporting, a child, upon the village green. 
How many a changeful year had passed between, 
Blanching his scattered hair, yet left him there 
A soul kept young by piety and prayer ! 
That to his mourning friend could meekly tell, 
* Be not for me afflicted, it is well, 
It was in my integrity I fell.' " 



104 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 



DE. JOHN LAKE, 

BISHOP SUCCESSIVELY OF SODOR AND MAN, OF BRISTOL, 
AND OF CHICHESTER. 

John Lake was born at Halifax, in Yorkshire, and 
was baptized on the 5th of December, 1624. He 
was educated at the Grammar School of his native 
town, and made so rapid a progress in his studies 
that he was admitted into St. John's College, Cam- 
bridge, in his thirteenth year. His tutor at St. 
John's was the learned Mr. Cleveland, whose life he 
subsequently wrote, and whose works, in conjunc- 
tion with Dr. Drake, Kector of Pontefract, he edited 
and published in 1687. He took his degree of B.A. 
at a very early age, and distinguished himself no 
less for loyalty than learning. He was arrested, 
together with a considerable party of ardent young 
royalists, by the Parliamentary Commissioners, for 
refusing to take the Covenant, and put into strict 
confinement — not being suffered to stir without the 
gates, or to take the slightest exercise or recreation. 

During the time of his restraint young Lake 
sedulously pursued his studies. At last he escaped, 
and, repairing to Oxford, entered the king's service 
as a volunteer. He distinguished himself at Basing 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTEK. 105 

House by his intrepid conduct in several successful 
sallies, and became one of the undaunted defenders 
of that stronghold of loyalty. He was so fortunate, 
however, as to escape the sanguinary massacre 
inflicted by Cromwell on the valiant garrison, who 
were for the most part put to the sword, in revenge 
for their gallant defence and the contempt with 
which they had treated his summons to surrender. 

Unintimidated by the fate of his brave com- 
panions in arms, young Lake continued to fight gal- 
lantly for King Charles in the defence of Walling- 
ford, and served four years, with dauntless courage in 
that hopeless cause, as a stripped and impoverished 
cavalier. 

His love of learning induced him to return to his 
academic studies. He refused to take the Engage- 
ment with no less firmness than he had rejected the 
Covenant. He succeeded, however, in 1647, in 
obtaining ordination from one of the deprived pre- 
lates, and entered publicly and fearlessly on his 
interdicted vocation. 

He preached his first sermon in his native town of 
Halifax, July 26, 1647. Not being suffered to 
remain there without taking the Engagement,, he 
removed to Oldham, whence, after a warm con- 
troversy, he was ejected by the Puritan party, and 
effectually silenced for a time. 

To render his case the worse, our adventurous 
young cavalier divine, on leaving the army for the 
Church, had married, and in addition to his personal 
struggle for subsistence, had at this anxious crisis a 
wife and young helpless family to support. 



106 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

On the death of the incumbent of Leeds he was 
presented to the vicarage of that town, but met with 
so much opposition from the Puritan party, who 
wished to introduce Mr. Bowles, that it was found 
necessary to call in a company of soldiers to secure 
his induction into the church, the doors having been 
barred against him by some of the more violent of 
his congregation. As this took place before the 
Eestoration, Lake must have had some powerful 
and influential friends on the other side, notwith- 
standing his well-known affection to the royal cause. 

At a post-Eestoration entertainment given by 
Bishop Gunning to the members of St. John's 
College, Lake, over whose head the wear and tear of 
twenty years had not passed in vain, appeared as one 
of the guests without being recognised, but his agree- 
able conversation induced the bishop to inquire 
whether he belonged to that college. ■ 

"Yes," replied Lake ; "I studied here very hard 
without once going out of the gates." 

This led to the explanation that he was one of the 
young cavalier students who had suffered a long 
imprisonment there on account of their principles. 
Lake w^as recommended, in 1661, by the royal letter 
of Charles II., to have the degree of D.D. conferred 
on him by the University of Cambridge, which was 
accordingly done. 

Lake preached his first synod sermon at York, 
with which the dean was so greatly pleased, that he 
sent a copy, without the author's knowledge, to 
Dr. Sheldon, Bishop of London. That prelate sent 
for Lake, and collated him to the rectory of St. 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 107 

Botolph's, Bishopsgate, May 22, 1663. He was 
made prebend of Holbourn, June 11, 1667, and 
formed a friendship with Sancroft which lasted as 
long as he lived. 

The following letter was addressed by Lake to 
Sancroft, when the latter requested him to preach as 
his substitute on Passion Sunday in cne of the 
city churches, before the rebuilding of St, Paul's 
Cathedral : — 

"Honoured Sir, 

" It was my unhappiness to be from home when 
you called upon so obliging an account this day. 
The favours which you have heaped upon me from 
time to time suffice not, unless you accumulate them 
with honours also, for it is the greatest to be your 
Lunodamonum. With such as I have, therefore, I 
shall appear in your place, not stead ; not as your 
representative, but your foil. In earnest, sir, it will 
be a passion sermon to all that expected you, and 
find me there ; and give me leave to say, in the 
words of truth and soberness, there can scarce be 
a greater disparity or disappointment. However, 
I accept it as a pledge of that undeserved value 
which you are pleased to set upon me, and that I 
may not too much reproach your judgment, I shall 
study the more to deserve it. It is almost enough to 
make me able that my lord of Hereford and your- 
self have considered me so ; at least it is my duty 
to try. 

" My lord, I would have attended you myself if 
you had thought fit, but that I am to preach at a 



108 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

solemn funeral on Wednesday. So soon as that is 
over I shall not fail to wait upon you if your journey 
prevent it not, or upon my lord of Hereford if it do, 
and then give him the assurance which I hereby 
give yourself, that I am, 

" Your great honourer, 

" And humblv devoted servant, 

" Jn. Lake. 

"March 15, 1668." 

In the following autumn Lake obtained the rich 
living of Prestwich, in Lancashire. Soon after, his 
clerk falling dangerously ill caused a report of the 
death of that official ; whereupon, as it was a place 
which included many advantages, a gentleman of the 
name of Clifford got a much-valued friend of Lake's 
to make interest . with him for the appointment, 
which he did, sending various testimonials of Clif- 
ford's merit. 

Lake, who was at that time enjoying a tour in 
Lancashire, did not receive the letter till long after 
date, which, together with the impossibility of com- 
plying with the request, elicited the following frank, 
yet complimentary letter of apology from him :— 

" Eeverexd Sib, 

u As you upon all occasions are ready to testify 
your undeserved respects to me, so I would not seem 
guilty of the least disrespect towards a person whom 
I so much and deservedly honour. It is, therefore, 
a double trouble to me, both that I make so slow a 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 109 

return to yours, on behalf of Mr. Clifford, which, 
through my ramblings up and down amongst several 
friends in Lancashire, came slowly to my hands, and 
that I cannot make a satisfactory one now ; and it is 
a further circumstance of trouble to me that you 
should think there needed any testimony but your 
own. Your simple testimony, w T hich did me so much 
service and reputation not long since, might, both in 
justice and gratitude, suffice with me. After all, it is 
my unhappiness to be somewhat entangled already. 
Not that I have made any promise of the place, for 
I would not seem to bury my clerk alive, but having 
buried about eleven or twelve weeks ago a prudent, 
sober, and faithful servant, who collected my tithes, 
and the clerk lying sick and weak as he still doth, I 
have retained one Mr. Hunt to do it, who was clerk 
of St. Antholin's before the fire, and now liveth 
within my parish, and I know hath the clerkship in 
his eye, and if he shall prove his fidelity to me I can 
scarcely look off him. This, sir, is the very truth of 
the case, and, therefore, I hope I shall have your 
excuse if I do not make Mr. Clifford a certain 
promise; but if the place become void in my time, 
and Mr. Hunt succeed not in it, I hereby assure it to 
Mr. Clifford, for the nomination, by the custom of 
the parish, as well as by canon, is wholly in myself, 
and I shall be glad of such an opportunity to testify 
myself — 

" Your humbly devoted servant, 

" J. Lake.* 
"November 16, 1668." 

* Tanner MSS., vol. xliv. 61, Bodleian Library, Oxford. 



110 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Lake was next made prebendary of Fridaythorpe, 
in the cathedral of York, and given other prefer- 
ments, not one of which was of his own seeking. 

His zeal for the restoration of good order and 
discipline in the church, especially his determination 
to abolish the irreverent custom into which the 
people had fallen, of walking about the aisles of the 
cathedral and talking during the celebration of divine 
service, excited great ill-will among the vulgar. 
This broke out with great violence in October, 1680, 
on his being installed archdeacon of Cleveland, when 
the most painful scene in his life occurred. The 
rabble forced themselves into the church in great 
numbers, wearing their hats, and raised a tumultuous 
riot. 

Lake, whose courage was indomitable, rose from 
his seat, and taking off the hats of those who were 
within reach, admonished them on the sacrilegious 
nature of their proceedings in the house of God, 
bidding them either remain and join in the service, 
or leave the church. Awed by the impressiveness 
of his language they retired, but presently after a 
fresh crowd collected and burst open the south door, 
and defied him in the most brutal language, and 
endeavoured to provoke him to strife. Lake, how- 
ever, preserved his temper, even when, without the 
church, they followed him home, and but for the 
courageous promptitude of Captain Honeywood, the 
deputy-governor, would have plundered and pulled 
down his house. 

The following Shrove Tuesday a fresh outbreak 
took place, in consequence of Lake's determination 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. Ill 

to stop the heathenish license claimed on that day 
by the sturdy apprentices and young men of York. 
It had been their custom from very ancient times to 
ring one of the cathedral bells, which they called 
the Pancake bell. This practice obtained in other 
places in Yorkshire, for in Dr. Lake's native town 
there was a popular rhyme circulated as a proverb, 
in reference to the inauguration of Shrovetide fes- 
tivities — 

" When Pancake bell begins to ring, 
All Halifax lads begin to sing/' 

But Lake was determined that in York Cathedral 
no singing should be tolerated, save to the glory of 
God. The dean and chapter advised him to wink at 
the saturnalia, and not to stir up the rabble by con- 
testing the privilege which they had enjoyed from 
time immemorial, of having the minster, from crypt 
to tower, thrown open for the pleasure of themselves 
and their country cousins on Shrove Tuesday. Lake, 
however, courageously endeavoured to prevent the 
desecration of the minster, first by reproving the 
rabble, and then by taking steps for their expulsion. 
They assailed him, as before, with brutal ferocity, 
and would have torn him to pieces, if some of the 
more moderate had not interposed and advised him 
to retire, unless he wished to be slain on the spot 
M I have faced death too often in the field," he 
replied, " to shrink from the danger of martyrdom 
in the performance of my duty : I should be sorry if 
any of your lives were to be endangered through 
your cruel and cowardly attack on me; but leave 



112 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

the ground at your bidding I will not." He was 
with difficulty rescued by the governor and his assist- 
ant force. 

Though Dr. Lake might have retired to either of 
his livings, his high spirit would not cower before 
the storm ; and he continued, at the imminent peril 
of his life, to reside in York till he had convinced his 
ferocious adversaries that they were not to convert 
the house of God into a place of idle riot. His firm- 
ness and courage finally conquered. 

Through the friendship of the Earl of Derby, 
Lake was nominated to the bishopric of Sodor and 
Man, and consecrated in December, 1682. It was a 
very poor see, but he cheerfully undertook the office, 
though at no small self-sacrifice, as he had to give up 
much more lucrative preferment at York for the 
sake of this almost barren mitre. His enemies at 
York could not believe that he would actually resign 
the rich prebend he held in that city for the empty 
dignity of the Manx bishopric ; and one of his great 
adversaries, Mr. Stainforth, who was making interest 
to obtain his house and preferment, promulgated an 
invidious report that Dr. Lake meant to retain his 
prebendal residence and living there. Lake frankly 
mentions this invidious rumour in a confidential letter 
to his friend Bancroft, to whom he thus writes in 
reference to the injurious rumour : — 

" I am so far myself from the least thought of keep- 
ing my residentiary place at York, that a design hath 
been for some time driving on for Mr. Stainforth to suc- 
ceed me in it, and he and I were discoursing of it at that 
very time when your grace's letter came to my hands ; 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 113 

and on all hands it is submitted to my lord of York, 
and if I am capable of doing any other good office 
to Mr. Stainforth, I shall cheerfully requite the bad 
offices which I know he hath done to me with that 
also. I shall add no more to your trouble, save 
only to assure your grace that it is a very great 
satisfaction to me that I am coming under your more 
immediate conduct ; and whatever cometh in my way, 
whilst I may have your advice and assistance, I can 
neither faint nor miscarry. 

" I beseech God long to continue your grace an 
ornament and a blessing to His Church, and to re- 
turn into your bosom all those undeserved favours 
which your grace hath reflected upon your most 
obedient and most humbly devoted servant, 

"Jo. Sodor." 

. Lake was much valued by the Archbishop of York, 
who considered his talents and learning deserved a 
more extensive sphere and a better reward than 
the bishopric of Sodor and Man, as we learn from 
his confidential letter to his friend Bancroft, — 

" March 31, 1684. 
" I intended your grace," he says, u the trouble of 
a few lines, to beg your prayers and blessing be- 
fore I set out for the Isle of Man in May next ; but 
am now engaged to give your grace trouble upon 
another occasion, to which I am invited and encou- 
raged by my lord of York ; otherwise the reverence 
which I have for your grace, and the consciousness of 
my own defects, would effectually have restrained 
the presumption. 

I 



114 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

" The occasion, may it please your grace, is this. 
The late Bishop of Carlisle being dead, my lord of 
York, ex mora motit, hath prompted me to put in for 
the bishopric, and hath promised all his favour and 
furtherance, which I took myself obliged to accept ; 
but still with this difference, if your grace shall not 
only approve but please to promote it also ; for as 
there is no hope of succeeding in it without such 
concurrence, so I can religiously profess that I 
affect not to be, or have anything which stands 
not with your good liking. I am, therefore, bold to 
offer this to your grace, but presume not to urge 
it at all ; and may I but continue in your good opinion, 
it will abundantly suffice your grace's most humbly 
devoted and most obedient servant, 

"J. SODOR."* 

But higher preferment awaited Lake. Charles II., 
who, whatever were his own faults, seldom nominated 
any other than worthy men to his hierarchy, had 
once been deeply impressed by a sermon on the 
death of the good, pious, and loyal citizen, Deputy 
William Cade, w 7 hich Lake preached before him at 
Whitehall, on the anniversary of his Eestoration, so 
far back as May 29th, 1671. This sermon had been 
published subsequently, under the title of the " True 
Christian's Character and Crown ;" and was so much 
approved by his Majesty, who had been previously 
much interested in the youthful adventures and 
loyal achievements of the preacher as an Oxford 
cavalier, that he declared he would make an English 

* Tanner MSS., xxxiv. 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 115 

bishop of him when a suitable opportunity oc- 
curred. 

Thirteen long years had however passed away since 
the royal declaration was uttered, and it was not till 
Bancroft induced Dr. Turner, who was then Bishop 
of Eochester and chaplain to the Duke of York, to 
mention Dr. Lake to his Eoval Highness, and solicit 
his influence with the king in his behalf, that he 
might be appointed to the bishopric of Bristol. 

Turner wrote from Windsor to Sancroft that Charles 
remembered his promise : — 

" April 20th, 1684. 

"According to your grace's directions, I have moved 
his Eoyal Highness and the king in favour of the 
Bishop of Man for Bristol. His name is received 
by our princes with so much kindness as will facili- 
tate his nomination. I have also performed your 
grace's commands in representing this business to 
the Earl of Eochester, who very readily meets your 
grace's motion for this worthy person, though I 
perceive his lordship's inclinations are leaning towards 
another. But my lord Duke of Beaufort not coming 
yesterday to Windsor, all I can do is to write my 
good Lord Clarendon such an account of the present 
design, for removing Dr. Lake to Bristol, as may be 
showed to his grace, which is but necessary ;" the 
Duke of Beaufort having named a friend of his for 
the bishopric of Bristol, which see, small as its emo- 
luments were, was just at that time eagerly sought. 

"I shall take the bishopric of Bristol, if it falleth 
to my share, not only contentedly, but joyfully and 
thankfully," writes Lake to Dr. Paman, April 30th, 



116 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

1684, " if it can be but so contrived that I may be 
entitled to another year's profits of the bishopric of 
Man, which I shall be perfectly at or before Michael- 
mas next, that is so soon as the harvest is cut 
down ; but otherwise I shall be a great loser by the 
one, and I doubt a greater by the other. To make 
this appear more clear and reasonable, not only the 
small value of the bishopric of Bristol is to be con- 
sidered, in respect whereof, for thirty-two years 
together, in Queen Elizabeth's time, it had no proper 
bishop of its own, but was held in commendam by the 
bishops of Gloucester ; but that hitherto I am entitled 
but to the year's profits of the bishopric of Man, and 
these amounting but to 282?., whereof I have yet 
received but 4:1. 5s., and I shall not receive the rest 
without much trouble and expense, and shall lose 
part of it after all, for the poverty of that island is 
very great, and not to be conceived by any but those 
who have been upon the place. I know my Lord of 
Derby may, if he pleaseth, favour me in this ; but I 
cannot tell whether I may expect it in this case, and 
therefore would not be left to his courtesy, if either 
by dispensing with me to hold the bishopric of Man 
so long (and I am far from desiring to hold it any 
longer), or by deferring my translation to Bristol. As 
to the finishing acts of it, if it could be helped, sir, I 
would not insist at all, much less so far upon this, if 
my case and condition did not require it. But if 
this cannot fairly be obtained, or not without too 
much concern to my lord of Canterbury, I shall, 
nevertheless, go on with a cheerful freedom, and rely 
upon that Providence which hath carried this matter 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 117 

on so far against my own inclination, and ever be 
what you have made me, 

" Your zealously devoted friend and servant, 

"J. Sodor."* 

A week after the date of this letter Lake, who was 
then at York, received a most kind and satisfactory 
letter from Sancroft, announcing his appointment to 
the bishopric of Bristol by the king's express desire, 
through the recommendation of his Eoyal Highness 
the Duke of York, to which Lake replied : — 

" York, May 1th, 1684. 
"I received your grace's (I know not whether 
more kind or condescending) letter, with the most 
grateful sentiments of which a soul no larger than 
mine was capable. Not that the bishopric of Bristol 
itself was so surprising and transporting, but the 
mediation of his Boyal Highness, his Majesty's ready 
favour and grace, the cheerful and unanimous con- 
sent of all the other honourable persons present, and 
I had almost said, above all, your grace's peculiar 
respects, did affect me w T ith equal wonder and delight, 
and it will be the engagement of my whole life to 
walk in some measure worthy of them. This would 
also inspire me with courage enough to encounter 
all the difficulties that lie in my way, if the greatest 
difficulty of all, the discharge of my duty and the 
consciousness of mine own defects, were not too just 
an alloy to it. However, I shall go on, cum bono Deo, 
and may the end be prosperous and happy, for which 

* Tanner MSS., xxxii. 45, Bodleian Library, Oxford. 



118 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

I shall humbly commit myself to that wise and 
gracious Providence which hath brought me on 
hitherto I matter not the way."* 

Unfortunately for Lake he had the ill-luck, on 
being consecrated Bishop of Bristol, to inherit a fierce 
quarrel w T hich had been going on for several years in 
this very poor but stormy diocese, between his pre- 
decessor the late bishop and two very bellicose 
members of the chapter. One of these was the 
dean, Mr. Samuel Crossman, a person apparently 
well worthy of his name ; the other, Mr. Prebendary 
Kichard Thompson, who had almost tormented the 
late bishop out of his life. One of their annoyances 
to the late bishop was to let out the canon's little 
marsh, contiguous to the episcopal palace, as a dock 
for the repairing and building of ships ; against which 
nuisance the bishop vainly protested, and finally 
petitioned the king, declaring "that the noise and 
evil smells occasioned by this proceeding was most 
injurious to his health, and that it would be impos- 
sible for him to continue to reside there, and the 
revenues of his see were too small to admit of his 
hiring another house ; and that Mr. Crossman had 
refused to pay the customary dues; so that the 
Bishop of Bristol, having neither lands nor revenues 
to pay for servants, must be his own slave and wait 
upon himself." 

All, however, was calm on Lake's first arrival, 
as we find from his letter to his friend the pri- 
mate, dated Bristol, September 18th, 1684, in which 

* Tanner MSS., xxxii, 50, Bodleian Library, Oxford. 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICIIESTEK. 119 

he says, "I was so perfect a stranger to all per- 
sons and things at Bristol, that I found nothing 
to advertise your grace, save what was not worthy 
of your grace's notice, rny safe arrival there, and 
my reception more civil and kind than I could 
expect." He then proceeds to lament the unhappy 
divisions and distractions he found in the city of 
Bristol, inflamed and distracted as they were by Sir 
John Knight, a most troublesome busybody, who was 
always stirring up strife, and had been the means 
of inducing one Mr. Roberts to take orders while 
lacking seven months of the canonical age. Mr. 
Roberts had imposed on the Bishop of Bath and 
Wells, and also on the Archbishop of Canterbury 
himself, by producing false testimonials of his age ; 
and being supported by the Duke of Beaufort in 
person, he obtained institution to the living against 
the wish of the parishioners, who had set their hearts 
on a different person. They proceeded against 
Roberts in the Court of Arches. 

Matters w T ere carried on stormily, and the poor 
bishop was rendered very uncomfortable amongst the 
contending parties. In the midst of the strife the 
bellicose dean died, but, unhappily for all lovers of 
peace and quiet, he was succeeded by the equally belli- 
cose prebendary, Thompson, and the king declared in 
his favour, although he had treated Sancroft with per- 
sonal disrespect. There were ecclesiastical irregula- 
rities in his institution to the deanery, to which the 
bishop and the more orthodox portion of the chapter 
objected ; but his violence overbore every one. He 
was accustomed, when any difference of opinion 



120 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

occurred in the Chapter House, to strike his hand 
upon the table, and maintain his own, by crying in 
an authoritative voice, " / lay it down for a maxim. 
I am Dean of Bristol." He set his face against 
weekly communions in the cathedral, which Lake 
desired to establish ; drove one of the minor canons 
out of Bristol by his injurious treatment, and perse- 
cuted another till he took to his bed with illness 
brought on by a series of insults and vexations. 

Lake found himself less able to withstand this 
ruffianly dean than to cope with the pancake rabble 
of York. His letters to Bancroft are many and 
piteous on the subject of the annoyances to which he 
was constantly exposed by this person, whom neither 
concessions could mollify nor courage daunt. 

To increase the difficulties of the bishop's position, 
the choir of the cathedral was in a dilapidated 
condition, and the chapter almost in a state of 
insolvency ; so that, as Lake pithily observed, " there 
is much needed to be done, and very little to do 
it with." 

In the midst of these disquiets Charles II. died. 
The ceremony of proclaiming his successor, James, 
Duke of York, king, is thus communicated to Arch- 
bishop Sancroft, by Lake : — 

"February 8th, Bristol. 

" May it please youk Gkace, 

" We received the news of the death of his late 
sacred Majesty this morning, with that regret which 
became our loyal duty. Immediately thereupon the 
mayor of this city called the magistracy together 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 121 

and resolved upon proclaiming his present Majesty, 
James II., with all expedition; and it was ac- 
cordingly performed about four of the clock this 
afternoon, with all the ceremony and solemnity which 
this place and the time admitted. The magistracy 
were all in their^ scarlet, I present with them in my 
robes, the militia of the city all drawn together; 
a vast crowd of people, drums beating, trumpets 
sounding, and as loud and hearty acclamations as 
could possibly be imagined. In this posture this 
leave th the city full of peace and joy, and the ma- 
gistracy, who are very zealous for his Majesty's 
honour and interest, I doubt not will from time to 
time give a good account of it. I presume, by an 
express which goeth to the Duke of Beaufort, to 
signify thus much (though in scribbling haste) to 
your grace. 

" Begging your grace's blessing, I am, 

" Your grace's most heartily devoted servant, 

" Jo. Bkistol." 

Matters proceeded more peacefully, even in 
stormy Bristol, during the first few days of the new 
reign ; but, within the month, when Lake writes to 
Sancroft touching an exchange with the bishop of 
Durham in the duty of preaching at Whitehall, he 
says, "I shall not fail, cum bono Deo, to be in 
London upon Saturday, the 28th of this month, 
March, and shall then crave leave to lay before your 
grace the state of our cathedral. At present all 
things continue as I formerly represented them. 



122 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

The dean (if I may call him so) neither acts nor 
appears. Whatever applications are made to him, or 
the necessities of the church require, he will do 
nothing ; and what he designeth, unless to decline 
my visitation, passeth all understanding but his 
own." 

The dean at last thought proper to write a long 
letter of apology and explanation to Sancroft, in 
which he said : " The commencement of the differ- 
ences between himself and the late Bishop of Bristol 
originated in their dispute on the case of one 
Mrs. Allis, who had been baptized at Glasgow by 
an unqualified layman, the butler of Sir John 
Home ; and that she, having scruples as to the 
validity of baptism so administered, was desirous of 
being re-baptized, for she had felt herself sorely 
disquieted by three sermons preached by him, 
Eichard Thompson, before his institution to the 
deanery, on the sacrament of baptism ; that the late 
bishop had urged it, but he, Bichard Thompson, 
considered it not only unnecessary, but profane, and 
had used very strong language against both the late 
bishop and the present, who had reiterated the 
opinion of his predecessor on the case of Mrs. Allis. 
But, in conclusion, he (the dean) signified his great 
regret that he had suffered himself to use such 
intemperate expressions towards the bishop, and 
declared his readiness to make any apology that 
should be required of him, and to submit to his 
visitations and such regulations in the cathedral as 
his lordship deemed necessary." 

A truce being thus proclaimed by the belligerent 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 123 

dean, Sancroft gladly availed himself of the services 
of his friend, Dr. Lake, on whose stainless principles 
lie well knew he could confide, for the purpose of 
restoring ecclesiastical order and discipline in the 
diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, and afterwards in 
that of Salisbury, in which arduous commission he 
was associated with the Bishop of Kochester and 
other eminent dignitaries of the Church. 

Lake was summoned to London in consequence of 
Monmouth's rebellion. King James considered the 
presence of this loyal prelate would be very service- 
able in keeping so important a place as Bristol quiet, 
and requested him to proceed thither without loss of 
time. Lake, who was at that time confined to his 
bed with a severe fit of the gout, unable to move 
hand or foot, hesitated not to yield prompt obedience 
to his sovereign's command, though under the ne- 
cessity of being carried to his coach. He was in 
great danger of falling into the hands of the in- 
surgents by the w r ay, but safely accomplished the 
hazardous and painful journey. He gives the fol- 
lowing account of his arrival in a letter to Sancroft, 
dated July 8th, 1685 :— 

" I found the city in a great ferment," writes he, 
" the rebels being within five miles, on the Somerset- 
shire side; and the next day the alarm was still 
hotter, they being within four miles, on the Glouces- 
tershire side, where the city seemed less defencible ; 
ever since that we have been on our guard, being 
fully satisfied that their eye was mainly upon this 
city ; and if the Duke of Beaufort had not been 
timely sent hither, and conducted himself with all 



124 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

prudence and diligence ever since, it had certainly 
become a cheap and easy prey to them. 

" At present we are celebrating, with all expres- 
sions of joy and triumph, the late happy victory 
obtained against the rebels, who are now totally dis- 
persed ; and this, accumulated with the news that the 
late Monmouth and Grey are taken in Dorsetshire, 
which is newly brought to the Duke of Beaufort ; 
but of this he waiteth a confirmation. 

"And now may it please your grace," continues 
Lake, " I hope it will not be unseasonable to com- 
mend Mr. Heath to his Majesty for the vicarage of 
St. Nicholas ; and the case seemeth to require dis- 
patch, for the dean and chapter of Bristol, who are, 
indeed, the proper patrons, have presented already ; 
but a lapse having occurred to the king, Mr. Heath 
is willing to try the king's title with the presenters 
at his own peril, and I shall take truce with the 
presentation until we know the result. 

" If I durst take confidence, I would presume, with 
respect to myself, to tell your grace that I have been 
advertised this day that the Bishop of Chichester is 
dead, and if your grace could think fit to move for 
that bishopric for me, it would be more convenient 
than Peterborough ; but in this, as in all other things, 
I must refer myself wholly to your grace." 

Sancroft recommended his old friend earnestly 
to the king, who cordially acceded to his request, 
and appointed Lake to the vacant see of Chichester ; 
in a happy hour for him, as the dean had just made 
a fresh break out, and even proceeded so far as to 
publish a virulent pamphlet of abuse against him. 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 125 

Lake alludes to this attack in his grateful letter of 
thanks to the primate for the welcome appointment 
to the see of Chichester : — 

" I shall hasten up with all convenient speed," 
writes he, " and reckon it amongst my deliverances 
to be freed from the impertinence and insolence of 
our dean ; who, by way of further answer to my 
articles of visitation, hath exhibited such a rhapsody 
of libellous and scandalous matter as seemeth to 
emulate if not outvie the d[ean] of Sarum." 

Lake's translation to the see of Chichester took 
place in October, 1685. After announcing his safe 
arrival in that city to Archbishop .Sancroft, he pro- 
ceeds to consult him on various important points 
connected with his episcopal arrangements : — 

" The sermons," observes he, " in our cathedral 
were wont to be in the body of the church, until 
Bishop Carleton, for wise and just reasons, removed 
them into the quire, and I have hitherto continued 
them there, and was not prophet enough to foresee 
any occurrence which might incline me to a thought 
to the contrary. But as this city is singularly factious 
and fanatic, and may be very prone to set up their 
conventicles again, and the Quakers have set up for 
themselves already, and the great William Penn is 
expected to speak amongst them to-morrow, so I 
would prevent it in the more sober and moderate 
sort of them, if possible ; and I think one proper 
expedient to that purpose is the returning of the 
sermons into the body of the church, where is both 
much more room and much better accommodation for 
hearing (wherein the religion of those men mainly 



126 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

consisteth) than the quire doth. I dare not be con- 
fident that this will attain the end ; but it hath a 
tendency to it, and it will at least stop the mouth of 
a very plausible pretence, viz., that there is not a 
sermon in the whole city on Sunday forenoon, but 
only in the cathedral, and that the quire will not 
receive the third part of the people if they should 
generally come in ; nor is there any sermon con- 
stantly in the afternoon, except in that part of the 
cathedral which is applied to the use of a particular 
parish, nor another living that is in any measure com- 
petent to maintain a constant preacher. All which 
is most undoubtedly true. 

"I therefore humbly offer this to your grace's 
consideration, and shall wait your direction in it, but 
what we do we must do quickly. For mine own part 
I humbly conceive that it may not be amiss to try 
the experiment ; and with some other expedients that 
perhaps may be found out, I hope, that with some 
losses, we may prevent greater inconveniences. If 
it be thought advisable, I shall take it upon me as 
mine own act and deed." 

In his next letter Lake notifies " that conventicles 
are set up in most of the great towns in the diocese, 
and that papists are very busy to make proselytes, 
but with little success. They have indeed gained four 
or five," continues he, " in one parish, but they are 
poor, mean persons, who bring neither credit nor 
advantage to their church ; nor do I hear of so many 
in the whole diocese beside, and yet divers of the 
most considerable persons in our part of the country 
are zealous that way." 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 127 

" One other little errand this hath, to introduce a 
son of mine, who, on his way to Cambridge," con- 
tinues Lake, " is emulous to beg your grace's bene- 
diction, as I also do, in the name and behalf of 

" Your grace's, in all humble duty and obedience, 

"Jo. ClCESTR." 

In a letter, dated June 18th, 1686, Lake, after 
thanking Sancroft for conferring the living of All- 
hallows, Barking, on Mr. Gaskarth, a worthy clergy- 
man in whpse behalf he had interested himself, pro- 
ceeds to give a very curious account of his first visi- 
tation, which he had extended as far as Rye, the 
utmost limit of his diocese, and apparently a sort 
of terra incognita, which none of his predecessors 
since the Reformation had ventured to enter, so 
completely was it considered out of the region of 
civilized beings. Lake himself, as he says, " did not 
proceed thither without some difficulty, by reason of 
the ways thither ; where " continues he, " no man 
alive hath seen a bishop before. In my passage by 
the sea coast I saw some churches wholly destroyed, 
and the parishes depopulated ; some others in great 
decay, almost all poor and mean, and in disorder 
enough, inasmuch that some parishes have never 
yet had surplice or service book since the happy 
Restoration. One, which hath indeed but one family, 
and that of quakers, belonging to it, though the par- 
sonage is worth at least forty pounds per annum, 
hath nothing but naked walls, and these not in the 
best repair ; and such lumber as the quaker hath no 
place in his house bad enough for, he layeth there. 



128 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

" On my return, I thought to have passed through 
the wild, and to have confirmed East Grinstead, 
Horsham, and some other places ; but there I was 
bid stand, though perhaps I went further than a 
wiser man would have done, and so must remit that 
until the ways are in better condition." 

After this melancholy description of his episcopal 
progress in that decayed and desolate district of his 
bishopric, Lake concludes his letter by mentioning 
u that since his return to Chichester the mayor of Eye 
had sent him copies of some extraordinary passports 
which had been presented by foreign gentlemen 
coming to Eye, on their passage to France ; the 
passports being sealed with a Benedictine seal, a 
bishop in his habit, with his crosier, and the pope's 
escutcheon." These were probably some of King 
James's foreign Eoman Catholic friends, whose ap- 
pearance and singular credentials caused so much 
astonishment, not only to the Mayor of Eye, but to 
the learned Bishop of Chichester. 

Lake, during the three years he held the see of 
Chichester, succeeded in establishing weekly com- 
munion in the Cathedral, in restoring the sermons to 
the body of the church, and also in drawing great 
numbers of conscientious dissenters to the worship of 
the Church of England. 

He was one of the seven bishops who, in June, 
1688, incurred the royal displeasure for petitioning 
to be excused from reading the king's declaration of 
Liberty of Conscience ; for which offence he also was 
committed as a prisoner to the Tower. The par- 
ticulars of that event having already been related in 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 129 

the life of Archbishop Sancroft, need not be repeated 
here. 

Lake continued to exercise his episcopal functions 
quietly in his diocese till the landing of the Prince 
of Orange brought him again on the arena of public 
life as a spiritual peer. He then united with the 
primate, and others of his faithful brethren, in en- 
deavouring to persuade the king to take such mea- 
sures for the security of the Church and constitution 
as would probably, if adopted in time, have preserved 
the crown to the male line of the Eoyal House of 
Stuart. The vacillation of James, and the treachery 
of some of his less conscientious advisers, rendered 
the judicious counsel of his prelates unavailing. 

Lake was one of those who subsequently advocated 
a regency in behalf of James's son. The votes w T ere 
so closely balanced that the crown was bestowed on 
William and Mary by only a majority of two. Lake 
gave his vote in favour of the regency ; and then 
retired to his diocese, refusing to transfer his homage 
to the new sovereigns. 

This refusal excited great animosity against the 
conscientious bishop. He was assured by his friends 
and well-wishers that, if he persisted in his deter- 
mination, his suspension would take place on the 1st 
of August, and his deprivation would follow on the 
1st of February. 

"No matter," he replied. "I will not take oaths 
which my conscience condemns. The hour of death 
and the day of judgment are as certain as the 1st of 
August and the 1st of February." 

The 1st of August came, and he was suspended ; 

K 



130 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

but his time on earth was now short. On the 27th 
of the same month he was seized with shivering fits, 
accompanied with convulsions: a malignant fever 
followed. When his physicians, who saw the alarm- 
ing nature of his symptoms, administered very strong 
and painful remedies, the deprived prelate smiled at 
their solicitude. " And is life worth all this at three- 
score years and five ?" asked he. Nothing, he knew, 
could arrest the fever, and he prepared for death with 
unruffled serenity. To the weeping friends who at- 
tended him he made a declaration of the principles 
which had governed his life in these impressive 
words : — 

" Being called by a sick, and I think, a dying bed, 
and the good hand of God upon me in it, to take the 
last and best viaticum, the sacrament of my dear 
Lord's body and blood, I feel myself obliged to 
make this short recognition and profession. That 
whereas I was baptized into the religion of the Church 
of England, and sucked it in with my milk, I have 
constantly adhered to it through the whole course of 
my life, and now, if so be the will of God, I shall die 
in it. And whereas the doctrines of non-resistance 
and passive obedience I take to be the distinguishing 
character of the Church of England, I have incurred, 
in consequence of my adherence to these principles, 
a suspension from the exercise of my office, and ex- 
pect deprivation. I find in so doing much inward 
satisfaction, and if the oath had been tendered with 
peril of my life, I could only have obeyed by suffer- 
ing. I desire you, my worthy friends and brethren, 
to bear witness of this on occasion, and to believe it 



LAKE, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 131 

as the words of a dying man, who is now engaged in 
the most sacred act of conversing with God in this 
world, and may, for aught he knows to the contrary, 
appear with these very words in his mouth at the 
dreadful tribunal." 

Lake entered into his rest three days after this 
profession of his principles, departing this troublous 
life peacefully on the night of August 30, 1689. 
Thus he escaped deprivation, as he died in the 
interim between his suspension and the day ap- 
pointed for his ejection. 

Dr. Patrick, his successor in the see of Chichester, 
expressed lively satisfaction that he was not called 
upon to supersede any of the deprived bishops, but 
was nominated to a see that was vacated by the 
natural death of its last possessor. Dr. Lake was 
interred in St. Botolph's Church, Bishopsgate, simply 
and without pomp. 



132 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 



DE. 'THOMAS WHITE, 

BISHOP OF PETEKBOKOUGH. 

The name of Thomas White claims honourable 
remembrance among the worthies of the Church of 
England distinguished by the emphatic title of the 
" Seven Bishops of the Tower." He occupies, it is 
true, a less prominent position on the page of public 
history than either of the six prelates with whom he 
conscientiously united in petitioning to be excused 
from executing the unconstitutional mandate of their 
short-sighted sovereign, James II. ; but so immacu- 
late was his character, that not even political malice 
ventured to assail him as an individual. 

He was born of respectable parentage, at Allington, 
in Kent, in the year 1630, and being early deprived 
of a father's care, had to work his own way in life. 
His widowed mother, a grave and holy matron, 
found a home in the house of a wealthy kinsman, 
Mr. Brookman, of Bichborough, in Kent, through 
whose influence probably she was enabled to place 
her fatherless boy, in the first instance, in the royal 
foundation of King's School, Canterbury. 

That well-known theologian, the Bev. John John- 



WHITE, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. 133 

son, vicar successively of Margate, Cranbrooke, and 
Appledore, who, as a contemporary, could scarcely 
have been mistaken, when preaching the anniversary 
serraoji for Kings School in the year 1716, and 
recapitulating the names of the distinguished men 
who had benefited by that institution, observed, 
" It produced in the last century two mitred heads, 
for I am well assured that the memorable Thomas 
White, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, was a 
scholar here, and I need not tell you that he was one 
of those seven prelates who made so notable a stand 
against arbitrary power in the year 1688 ; and yet 
afterwards, by his conduct, made it appear that his 
love to English liberty had not at all tainted the 
affection which he bore to his own natural lord and 
sovereign."* 

It could, however, have only been the rudiments 
of his education that Bishop White received at 
King's School, Canterbury, since it is certain that 
he was early removed to the Grammar School at 
Newark-on-Trent, where he speedily distinguished 
himself by his genius, industry, and learned attain- 
ments, and was remarked for his singular personal 
strength, courage, and pugilistic skill. He was 
accustomed to say "that he ever looked back to 
his school days, at Newark, as the pleasantest and 
happiest of his life." 

After completing an honourable scholastic career 
at Newark, he was entered as a sub-sizar at St. 
John's College, Cambridge. His talents, industry, 

* Quoted by the Rev. J. S. Sidebotham, M.A., in his valuable 
little work, "Memorials of King's School, Canterbury." 



134 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

and learning dignified this lowly position, and finally 
elevated him above it. On taking holy orders he 
obtained, though in the days of the Commonwealth, 
the lectureship of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and became 
noted as one of the most eloquent preachers in 
London. 

After the Eestoration he was preferred to the 
Eectory of Allhallows, Barking, in Thames Street, 
where he was admired and followed by crowding 
thousands as the most popular preacher of that 
day. 

It is stated, in a contemporary MS. in the British 
Museum, that he was once in attendance on the 
Bishop of Bochester when that prelate was to 
officiate for the first time at Dartford, on which 
occasion a ruffianly trooper of King Charles II.'s 
guard insulted them both, and treated the bishop 
with brutal and unprovoked insolence ; and when Dr. 
White reproved him for his irreverent conduct, he, 
presuming on his gigantic figure, challenged them 
both to fight it out with him ; on which White, re- 
membering his own unrivalled prowess in his school- 
boy days, as a personal champion, was so far provoked 
as to depart from clerical dignity by inflicting con- 
dign chastisement on the ill-mannered bully, and 
compelled him to ask the bishop's pardon for his 
incivility, and lead his lordship's horse to the stall, 
which he had previously prevented him from ap- 
proaching. 

King Charles was highly amused at the story, 
of which he had heard only an apocryphal report, 
and facetiously told Dr. White "that he shodd 



WHITE, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. 135 

impeach him of high treason, for committing a 
personal assault on one of his guards.'' But when 
Dr. White explained the provocation he had received, 
and the unprovoked insolence with which the trooper 
had treated both the Bishop of Bochester and 
himself, the king greatly commended him "for the 
spirit and personal courage with which he had acted 
in teaching the fellow better manners," and pro- 
mised to remember him when an opportunity of 
conferring a suitable preferment occurred. 

The living of Bottesford was presented to Dr. White 
by the Earl of Butland, and he actually attained 
the happiness of becoming the vicar of Newark, that 
dearly-loved town to which he owed the precious 
boon of a liberal education — the education that 
had been to him more than an inheritance of silver 
and gold, by enabling him to fight the battle of 
life victoriously, and to gladden the heart of a 
widowed mother by his scholastic fame and the 
honourable place he had won as a dignitary of the 
church, for the Archdeaconry of Nottingham was 
also conferred upon him. 

On the marriage of the Lady Anne, the daughter 
of the Duke of York, to Prince George of Denmark, 
he was made her domestic chaplain. As the Lady 
Anne occupied the important place in the royal 
succession of heiress-presumptive to the throne, after 
her father and childless elder sister, the Princess of 
Orange, the appointment of so firm a churchman 
and excellent a character as the apostolic, learned, 
and eloquent Dr. White, became a matter of general 
satisfaction. All England, indeed, looked anxiously 



136 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

to him as the person on whose influence the religious 
principles of their future sovereign in a great 
measure depended. 

Dr. Thomas White had in his youth and early 
manhood seen many calamities befall the Church of 
England. The lesson he had learned from this 
adversity was, that to give the poor good sound 
instruction, and for her clergy to train them in 
practical observance of the precepts of the Church, 
was the way of heal and weal alike for Church and 
people. Considering the paucity of the education 
and mind of Queen Anne, she seems to have worked 
out these principles after her accession to the crown 
to the utmost extent of her ability. 

Her fostering conduct to the Church is the best 
part of her career in life, and this was assuredly 
owing to her spiritual adviser, Dr. Thomas White. 
There was no other holy and purely disinterested 
person who enjoyed her confidence in opening life 
excepting White, whose influence could have worked 
on her mind for good. Neither her preceptor, Comp- 
ton, Bishop of London, nor her tutor, Dr. Edward 
Lake, were characters likely to induce abnegation of 
selfishness, or to render her what she truly became, 
the nursing mother and generous benefactress of the 
Church of England. 

Dr. White was consecrated Bishop of Peterborough 
October 25th, 1685. He was, on the suspension of 
Compton, Bishop of London, appointed, with the 
Bishop of Durham, and Sprat, Bishop of Bochester, 
to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the diocese of 
London. . This was both a delicate and difficult 



WHITE, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. 137 

office, and the Bishop of Rochester expressed lively 
satisfaction that so holy and wise a man, as Dr. White, 
was associated with him in its responsibilities. 

White, on his return to Peterborough, considered 
it his duty to investigate the state of his see, and was 
shocked on discovering how greatly the number of 
pluralities had increased since the Reformation, and 
in the course of years extended to an amount highly 
detrimental to the good of the Church, and the in- 
crease of Christian congregations. After serious re- 
flection on the evils to which this practice gave rise, 
he submitted to the primate, Archbishop Sancroft, 
the following list of cases which he regarded as serious 
abuses, and entreated his counsel for reforming abuses 
of the kind. 

" What limitations," he asks, "are to be given to 
pluralities in the cases following ? 

• 1. When one man has from one to three or four 
and five curacies to supply, and they do not altogether 
make up a competent livelihood ? Many of which are 
I believe to be found in the northern parts of Lin- 
colnshire. 

" 2. Where one man holds a curacy and a vicarage 
or rectory, and perhaps lives at neither, but yet sup- 
plies them both by turns ? 

" 3. Where one man has two benefices with cure, 
and devolves them both upon curates to supply ; he 
himself not being detained from them by any other 
employment, but chooseth some city or great town 
to reside in for his secular convenience ? 

" 4. Where pluralities belong to a residentiary in 
some cathedral church, and are supplied by curates, 



138 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

the incumbent never residing, or hardly ever seeing 
his parishes for several years." 

" I believe," adds White sadly, " there will be in- 
stances met with of all these cases in that great 
circuit, and I shall humbly beg your grace's instruc- 
tions and commands about them, which I shall choose 
to follow rather than my own weak judgment, and 
in this and all other my understandings do most ear- 
nestly crave the aid of your grace's prayers and your 
blessing." * 

Bishop White continued to devote unremitting at- 
tention to the reform of ecclesiastical discipline in his 
diocese ; and although he had always been treated 
with especial courtesy by King James, he joined heart 
and hand with Archbishop Sancroft and the other five 
prelates who signed the petition, praying that sove- 
reign to excuse them from reading and promulgating 
the royal declaration of Liberty of Conscience. He 
also was one of those who presented that petition to 
the king ; he was subsequently committed to the 
Tower, as one of the seven, and was tried and trium- 
phantly acquitted with them. 

Anxious to avoid all political excitement he retired 
to his diocese, and occupied himself wholly and 
solely in the zealous performance of his episcopal 
duties during the stormy period of the Revolution 
which transferred the throne of England to William 
and Mary. 

It was naturally expected that White, as the 
favourite chaplain of the Princess Anne, would 

* Tanner MSS., vol. xxxi., p. 289., Bodleian Library, Oxford. 



WHITE, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. 139 

remain attached to the fortunes of his illustrious 
patroness ; but nothing could induce him to forfeit 
the oath of allegiance he had sworn, or to counte- 
nance her unfilial conduct to her royal father, who, 
whatever had been his faults as a man and a sove- 
reign, had ever been the tenderest and most indul- 
gent of parents to her. 

White was not a^man to hesitate between duty 
and expediency. However painful the sacrifice was, 
he gave up the service of the Princess Anne, and all 
the prospects it opened, in no remote vista. He 
refused to take the oaths of allegiance to the new 
sovereigns, was suspended on the 1st of August, 
1689, and finally ejected from his bishopric and 
deprived of all his other preferments on the 1st of 
February, 1690 — in a word, reduced from affluence 
to absolute indigence. 

He had made no provision for himself from the 
revenues of the rich benefices he had enjoyed, con- 
sidering himself as merely the steward and distributor 
of the goods of the Church for the benefit of the poor 
and the extension of scholastic institutions. 

The whole of the property, real and personal, 
which this self-denying and conscientious prelate 
had amassed, during the thirty years he had received 
the wages of the Church, did not amount to more 
than 2000?. ; and that this was devoted to charitable 
objects, the following extracts from the will he made 
after his ejection from the see of Peterborough afford 
satisfactory testimony. He was at that time in very 
ill health, and looking forward to his demise at a 
much earlier period than it occurred. This docu- 



J 40 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

ment is so truly edifying, in the spirit of Chris- 
tian humility, love of God, and zeal for His service, 
that it cannot be otherwise than interesting to the 
reader : — 

u In the name of God, Amen ! I, Thomas White, 
D.D., late Bishop of Peterborough, have reflected 
often upon the occurrences of my former life, and 
often looked forward to the end of it, whither I am 
hasting through several infirmities of body which 
now afflict me, and the burden of almost sixty-two 
years of age ; but being of sound understanding 
and memory, do make and constitute this my 
last Will and Testament, in manner and form fol- 
lowing : — 

" First, I commend my soul into the hands of God, 
giving most humble thanks unto Him not only for the 
manifold mercies which He hath vouchsafed me in 
order to the comfortable passage of my life — but for 
the infinite love He hath shown to the world in send- 
ing His only Son Christ Jesus to be the Redeemer of 
mankind ; and particularly that I, being born in a 
Christian country, was early admitted into the holy 
Catholic Church of Christ, and have enjoyed the 
privileges and benefits thereof through life, and 
more especially that by Divine grace and favour I 
was instituted and brought up in that religion which 
is professed and established in the Church of Eng- 
land, which, after due inquiry and examination, I 
esteem the best constitution and safest way to 
heaven which is in the world (oh, that my deluded 
countrymen would think so too !), being far from the 
dangerous corruptions of Popery and the many im- 



WHITE, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. 141 

perfections which other parts of the Keforniation are 
subject to. 

" I do, moreover, beg of God, my Heavenly 
Father, full and perfect pardon for all my sins, being 
conscious to myself of manifold neglects and mani- 
fold violations of my duty ! For Thy Son our Lord 
Jesus Christ's sake forgive me all that is past, and 
grant that all the defilements I have contracted 
through the lusts of the flesh, the vanities of the 
world, and the temptations of the devil, may be 
cleansed and done away with, and the remainder of 
my life may be wholly devoted to Thy service and 
glory, that I may be presented unto Thee without 
spot and blameless at the last day !" 

He devises 10?. for the benefit of the poor of the 
parish in the which he should happen to die. To the 
poor of Peterborough, Bishop White gives 24:01. to 
be laid out in land ; 10?. out of the rents being for 
the poor of that parish, and the remainder for the 
minister as a reward for his pains in the distribution 
of the 10?. (devoted) to the poor of the parish. The 
107. was directed to be distributed in the church- 
porch on the 14th of December annually, to twenty 
poor families (reckoning the husband and wife for 
one person), who shall exactly and distinctly repeat 
the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten 
Commandments^ without missing or changing one 
word therein. 

" And," continues the bishop, rt I do desire 
withal it may be observed that I do design this 
gift not only as a corporal, but as a spiritual alms to 
do good unto the souls as well as the bodies of the 



142 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

poor, having with sorrow of heart taken notice of 
the inconceivable ignorance which prevails amotig 
the poor people that they are (at least very many of 
them) Christians only in name, but know not why 
they are so — nor what it is to believe, or practise, 
or pray for, or to answer the demands of the 
Christian profession. 

" To encourage them, therefore, to learn the 
foundations of the Christian religion, I have be- 
queathed this charity. 

" My further will is, that this part of my last will 
and testament be transcribed by the parish above 
mentioned, and be locked up in the parish chest ; and 
that on the last Sunday in November, after morning 
service, the rector, vicar, or incumbent do read this 
part of it to the poor and the inhabitants of the said 
parish in the church-porch." 

The like sum, with the same provisoes, he be- 
queaths to the parish of Newark-upon-Trent, that 
well-beloved home of his school-days, and to which 
his labours in the cure of souls were devoted with 
spiritual joy in early manhood. Moreover, he left 
to the library of the church of Newark 1200 volumes 
for the use of the town, in consideration of his 
attachment to it as the place of his early education. 

White recovered from the complication of com- 
plaints under which he was suffering at the period 
when he made this will. 

He alludes to the nature of his peculiarly painful 
and dangerous malady in the following interesting 
letter to his beloved friend, the deprived Archbishop 
Sancroft : — 



WHITE, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. 143 

" Eaton, July 29th, 1692. 

" May it please your Grace, 

" Being acquainted with Dr. Banian's intention 
to wait on your grace, I am desirous he should carry 
with him some signification of my deep respect and 
duty, which I know not how to express better than 
by congratulating that settled and uninterrupted 
health which I hear you enjoy at seventy-five years 
old, and that greatness and constancy of mind which 
makes you happy in the loss of everything which all 
the world understands and admires. 

" I had about a month ago an account that my 
brother of Bath and Wells [Ken, Bishop of Bath 
and Wells] was in a good state, and have received 
two letters from my brother Robert of Gloucester 
[Frampton, Bishop of Gloucester], full of cheer- 
fulness and generosity of temper, that show his 
sufferings make no other alteration on the bravery 
of his spirit, but only to improve it. Among other 
things, he rejoices that, with the loss of his bishopric, 
he has likewise lost his gout, and looks on it as a 
happy exchange. He seemed very desirous to know 
how he might write to your grace, to which I gave 
him some directions, and therefore suppose you may 
have heard of him by this time. Dr. Paman will 
tell you how severely I have been handled with a fit 
of the stone in the kidneys very lately, but, blessed 
be God, the pain is gone off, and I have been at 
more peace in my bladder the last week than I have 
enjoyed these two years and upwards. 

" I wish your grace the continuance and, increase 



144 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

of all good things, and humbly beg your blessing and 
prayers in behalf of, 

" My lord, 

" Your most obedient and dutiful servant, 

" Tho. Petribourg." 

White assisted two of his brethren, the deprived 
Bishops of Norwich and Ely, on the 23rd of Feb- 
ruary, 1695, in consecrating Thomas Wagstaff, the 
nonjuring Chancellor of Lichfield and ejected rector 
of St. Margaret Pattens, to the office of suffragan 
Bishop of Milford. White was at that period lodging 
in the house of the Rev. Mr. Giffard, in Southgate, 
and the ceremony was performed there, in the 
presence of Henry, Earl of Clarendon, the uncle of 
the Queen and her sister the Princess Anne. 

Wagstaff derived no emolument from the office to 
which he was thus appointed. He had studied 
physic before his admission into holy orders, and 
after his deprivation he practised the healing art 
with great sucess for a subsistence, but continued to 
wear his clerical gown to the end of his life. 

The meek and heavenly-minded Thomas White 
survived his ejection from the see of Peterborough 
upwards of eight years, living in great privacy a 
devout life of poverty and self-denial, held in 
great reverence by his friends, and disarming the 
malice of his political opponents by the blameless 
and apostolic tenor of his conduct. 

His last public appearance was by the side of Sir 
John Fenwick, when that unfortunate gentleman 



WHITE, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. 145 

mounted the scaffold on Tower Hill, the 28th of 
January, 16 ( JG-7, to suffer the death to which he had 
been illegally and unconstitutionally doomed by the 
revival of the old Tudor iniquity of condemnation by 
attainder. 

The more reflective of the people regarded with 
patriotic indignation so gross a violation of the 
boasted privileges of British subjects, resorted to by 
those who professed to have become the champions 
of the laws and liberties of Great Britain. 

Great disgust was also expressed when it w 7 as 
knowm that the new primate Tennison, with Comp- 
ton, Bishop of London, Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury. 
and others of the prelates of the Revolution, had 
broken through the humane custom which had 
hitherto prompted the lords spiritual to withdraw 
from the House on such occasions, and had un- 
clerically given their votes for the bloody doom 
which sent their illegally-condemned countryman to 
the block in the flower of his days. 

The murmurs deep, not loud, that pervaded the 
spectators of the tragic scene were hushed to affec- 
tionate awe when they saw the attenuated form of 
the deprived Bishop of Peterborough, whom many of 
them well remembered as the eloquent rector of All- 
hallows, Barking, the most popular preacher of the 
day, and venerated as one of the holiest of men, who 
had renounced rank, riches, and political power for 
conscience' sake, appear by the side of the victim, 
whom he came to comfort and support in that 
dread hour. 

Nothing could be more gallant and courageous 

L 



14(3 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

than the demeanour of Sir John Fenwick as he 
stepped on the fatal scaffold. Looking calmly round, 
he gracefully saluted the gentlemen who came to see 
him die ; but he spoke to no one but the deprived 
Bishop of Peterborough. Earnestly they two prayed 
together for their country and for their king, whom, 
however, they did not mention by name. 

The last time the rich voice of Dr. White — once 
so familiar in that district to the listeners who had 
been wont to hang on every word that proceeded 
from his lips — was heard, was when he invoked his 
solemn benediction on his death-doomed friend. 

Sir John Fenwick expressed his wish to make trial 
of the block. He kneeled down, and ascertained 
the best way of placing himself for the stroke of 
death. He rose again, and took an affectionate leave 
of the Bishop of Peterborough. It seems that this 
devout Christian had forbidden his penitent to be 
accessary to his own death by making any signal for 
the descent of the axe ; for Sir John Fenwick, when 
he finally placed his neck on the block, said to the 
executioner, " Man, I am ready for aught that may 
be done to me, but expect no signal from me." 

Sir John Fenwick then said fervently a short 
prayer, at the end of which the headsman skilfully 
despatched him with one blow. A few months after 
this solemnity Dr. White entered into his rest. He 
died in London, on the 30th of May, 1698, having 
lived in great retirement ever since his deprivation. 

His funeral was solemnized on the 5th of June. 
He was buried in St. Gregory's churchyard vault, in 
St. Paul's. 



WHTIE, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. 147 

His remains were attended by the nonjuring 
bishops, Francis Turner of Ely, Lloyd of Norwich, 
and the Irish Bishop of Kilmore, who with two others 
of the deprived brethren supported the pall. Forty 
of the ejected clergy, and several of the Jacobite 
nobility and gentry followed the hearse; but on 
the request of Turner, that he or some other of the 
nonjurors should read the burial service, being re- 
jected by the Dean of St. Paul's, who appointed a 
conforming minister to officiate, the whole of the 
mourners withdrew. 

Turner, Bishop of Ely, gives an account of the cir- 
cumstances, in the following curious letter to his 
brother, which is now for the first time unfolded to 
the general reader : — 

'•Most dear Sir, 

" I acquainted you with the sad occasion of my 
being in town last week. There I stayed till yester- 
day, that I might attend the funeral on Saturday 
night. It was earnestly desired by many that I 
should perform the office at the grave (in St. Gre- 
gory's, i.e., in the churchyard, for there is no church). 
I yielded, if it might be permitted, which I told them 
would hardly be, and that my poor name would never 
pass muster. Yet the curate of the place agreed 
with all the ease and respect imaginable. But his 
de facto dean, Dr. Sherlock, coming to know it, for- 
bade it expressly, nor could any intercessions prevail 
with him to suffer any one of the dejDrived, not the 
most obscure or least obnoxious, to officiate. This did 
not hinder me nor anybody else from waiting on the 



148 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

corpse to the grave, the Bishop of Kilmore and my- 
self with four others holding up the pall. As soon 
as our bearers set down we made our exit ; and all 
the clergy with most of the gentry followed. 

" The great reason alleged by Dr. Sherlock for re- 
fusing it was the daring imprudence of the Bishop of 
Bath and Wells (Ken) for burying Mr. Kettlewell 
even in his habit. Is not this a precious manikin 
of a dean ?" * 

The passage in the deprived bishop's will, in which 
he leaves his unostentatious directions for his funeral, 
is peculiarly touching : — 

" Having commended my soul unto the mercy and 
grace of God, I do appoint my body to be buried in 
the churchyard of the parish w r herein I shall die, with- 
out any funeral pomp, sermon, or expenses above ten 
pounds ; and without any monument or inscription, 
saving this upon a little stone, if it may be allowed. — 
6 The body of Thomas White, D.D., late Bishop 
of Peterborough, deprived of that bishopeic 
for not taking the oaths of allegiance and 
supremacy established in 1689, is buried here 
in hopes of a happy resurrection." 

Meekly and simply as the saintly Bishop of Peter- 
borough set down the facts he desired to have en- 
graved on the " little " stone that was to record his 
numble " Sicjacet" it seems they were too strong for 
the prosperous Bishop of London to admit into the 
Cathedral of St. Paul's ; for his dust has namelessly 

* Indorsed " for the Rev. Dr. Turner, President of Corpus Christi 
College, Oxford/' Tanner MSS., Bodleian Library. 



WHITE, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. 149 

mingled with that of the parishioners of St. Gregory,* 
the adjunct to the stately metropolitan church. But 
such a fact would not vex the soul of a man who left 
only ten pounds to bury his body, and the rest of his 
slender store to the poor. 

* Brown Willis says in liis ' Cathedrals/ that Bishop WTiite was 
buried in St. Gregory's Church, now part of St. Paul's Cathedral, 
without any monument. 



150 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 



FEANCIS TUENEK, 

BISHOP OF ELY. 



CHAPTEE I. 

Francis Turner was more intimately connected 
with the Court than either of the seven prelates 
whose memorials are progressively unfolding in these 
pages. His mother, Margaret Windebanke, was the 
daughter of Sir Francis Windebanke, Secretary of 
State to Charles I. His father, Dr. Thomas Turner, 
successively Dean of "Rochester and Canterbury, was 
chaplain to that unfortunate prince, whom he accom- 
panied to Scotland and attended in many of his 
wanderings. Two of Francis Turner's maternal 
uncles were in the service of the king, who made 
the eldest Governor of Blechendon House. To the 
king's great surprise and mortification, Windebanke, 
surrendered this important stronghold to Cromwell, 
the lieutenant-general of the Parliament, with the 
great store of arms and ammunition it contained, 
conduct for which no reasonable excuse could be 
assigned. He was tried by a military commission, 
found guilty of treason and cowardice, and con- 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 151 

demned to be shot. Notwithstanding the great in- 
terest of Sir Francis Windebanke, this sentence was 
executed, on which Lieutenant-Colonel Windebanke, 
his younger brother, threw up his commission, be- 
came a deadly foe to the royal cause, and finally 
attained great political power and influence in the 
cabinet and councils of William III. 

Francis Turner was born at Canterbury, in the 
year 1636, just before the breaking out of the great 
rebellion, and was trained from infancy in principles 
of loyal affection to his Church and king. His father 
was, in consequence of his ardent attachment to 
both, ejected from all his preferments, so that the 
early days of Francis Turner were overshadowed 
with care and disciplined by adversity ; the depriva- 
tion of income subjecting the family to the misery of 
stinted meals, and all the privations consequent on a 
reverse from ease, comfort, and luxury, to absolute 
want. 

He received his education in the college of Wil- 
liam of Wykeham, at Winchester. While there he 
formed a tender friendship with the celebrated 
Thomas Ken, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, 
a friendship that endured through life. They were 
united by a reciprocity of sentiment and pursuits as 
schoolboys — both were poets — both were studious, 
enthusiastic, and loyal — both distinguished them- 
selves by their ardent love for learning — both were to 
become bishops, patriotic champions of the Church, 
and finally martyrs to their principles. Francis 
Turner, being one year older than Ken, was the first 
to leave Winchester for New College, Oxford, in the 



152 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

year 1655. He was soon followed by his beloved 
friend ; their intimacy was increased by time and 
sympathy, and became a source of mutual happiness 
to both. 

The degree of B.A. was taken by Francis Turner 
in the year 1659, of M.A. in 1663, of B.D. and D.D. 
in 1669. He had been previously admitted into holy 
orders at the Restoration, when the preferments of 
his father, Dr. Thomas Turner, were restored. The 
living of Therfield, in Hertfordshire, was presented 
to Francis Turner in the year 1663. 

Dr. Isaac Brassine, writing June 31, 1667, to 
the father of Francis Turner, tells him "he sends 
his lately published book for a new year's gift, and 
shall commend it to the good care of your worthy 
son, Francis Turner, a person precious to us for his 
piety and learning beyond his years." 

Therfield was formerly dependent on the royal 
abbey of Rumsey. The church was a noble struc- 
ture, but had suffered much during the civil wars, 
and w r as almost in a state of ruin w r hen Francis 
Turner was inducted into the rectory. At his own 
expense the youthful rector restored the choir and 
chancel, erected a groined roof over the chancel, and 
paved the floor with polished marble. 

He was doubtless assisted in his work of restora- 
tion by the suggestions of his friend, Sir Christopher 
Wren, who was occasionally his guest Eulogistic 
Latin verses were addressed to Francis Turner on his 
munificent improvements to his church, by Thomas 
Wright. 

While resident at his beloved rectory, Francis 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 153 

Turner indulged bis poetic feelings by writing lines 
" On the Prospect of the University of Cambridge, 
from the top of the hill near my house at Ther- 
iield." 

" Hail, to those sacred mansions soaring high, 
Me thinks a glory near each chapel dwells ; 
Christ's colours streaming there of crimson dye ! 
Each offering like the balm of Gilead smells, 
Which, mixed with odorous gums, all meaner scents dispels. 
******* 

" Let thy good angels, Lord ! the place frequent — 
Send from thy treasures of celestial grace 
Those gifts thy Holy Spirit oft has sent ; 

Send them, blest Father, on that chosen place, 
Lift up thy light serene on those that seek thy face. 

" Thou bad'st thy heavenly meteor take its stand 
On thy travailing temple, in the way 
Where Moses led them through the barren sand ; 
As thou wert in the meteor, so I pray, 
Through yonder sacred roofs dart thine inspiring ray. 
******* 

" Son of the Father, who the world didst frame, 

And didst redeem the world with thine own blood, 
And tak'st away our sin, O thou, the Lamb ! 
To that blest colony of thine be good ; 
Wash them from earth for heaven with thy rich purple flood !'* 

There is a very primitive letter, in the Eawlinson 
MSS., from the old Dean of Canterbury, Francis 
Turner's father, to his son Thomas, afterwards the 
Master of Corpus Christi, Oxford, announcing that 
their mother had sent half a dozen shirts between 
him and his brother, and was desirous of being cer- 
tified that her maternal present had been safely 
received in Oxford. 

Francis Turner was collated to the prebend of 



154 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Sneating, in St. Paul's, in 1669. In the following 
year he was elected Master of St. John's College, 
Cambridge, where he was greatly honoured and be- 
loved. 

He assisted in fostering the genius of Matthew 
Prior, whom he first brought into notice wlien an 
undergraduate at St. John's College. Prior had 
addressed in the first instance some very elegant 
lines to his accomplished master, entreating him to 
inspire an obscure and unfriended muse. 

" So to the blest retreats she'll gladly go, 
Where the saint's palm and muse's laurel grow ; 
Where, kindly, both in glad embrace shall twine, 
And round your brows their mingled honours twine ; 
Both to the virtue due, which could excel 
As much in writing, as in living well." 

The high moral tone of Francis Turner's conduct, 
character, and works, had indeed w r on for him such 
universal respect in St. John's College, that this 
gratefully-turned sentence might be regarded as a 
well-merited tribute, rather than a compliment, for 
it was the truth. 

Excessive study and a solitary life were inimical 
to his health, and he writes to his mother in the 
year 1674, confessing "that he had been ill from 
overburdening his mind and giving up bodily exer- 
cise ; but was resolved to follow her advice, and 
bestow more time on his body to keep it in better 
plight; that he feels his solitary evenings, but 
labours daily to resign himself to the wall of Him 
who hath promised that all things shall work for good 
to those who love Hini." 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 155 

The next thing our learned recluse did, was to 
relieve his dulness by falling in love, considering that 
his Heavenly Creator had not thought it good for 
man to be alone, even in Paradise. 

There was a strong friendship between Francis 
Turner and the apostolical Peter Gunning, his prede- 
cessor in the see of Ely. To this worthy prelate he 
confided his desire of marrying Anna Horton, a most 
charming and exemplary young lady, maternally 
descended from the noble family of Ferrars, and 
fairly endowed with fortune. 

He had now been fourteen years in holy orders, 
and being of a melancholy disposition, was weary 
of celibacy, especially after he had seen the fair 
Anna Horton, and became acquainted with her good 
qualities. 

In the autumn of the year 1676, he announces 
the approaching change in his condition to his friend, 
Archbishop Sancroft, in the following quaint and 
original terms : — 

" October 14, 1676. 
"Honoured dear Sir, 

" The deference my father* enjoined his sons to 
have for you and your particular kindness, oblige 
me to acquaint you with a great concern of mine, 
and to desire your blessing and your prayers for me ; 
for I am, to-morrow, with God's leave, to marry one 
Mrs. Horton, in the chapel at Ely House, and so 
receive the Church's benediction from the sacred 
hands of my lord bishop himself, my spiritual 
father, without whose participation, consent, and sa- 
tisfaction, I have not done this thing; nor without 



156 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

the maturest consideration of all my own circum- 
stances and of the person I am about to marry. My 
great inducements were, a thousand pounds' debt 
was contracted by my building in so many places, 
though scarce anybody knew of this but my good 
lord of Ely (to whom I owed good part of it), and 
then my own natural and habitual melancholy was 
another more prevailing consideration. But nothing 
wrought in me more than the great security (if I 
may communicate it of one that is so near being my 
wife) of a person that, if the world be not extremely 
mistaken, is of good piety and good nature, as well 
as kindness ; at least all men speak well of her. I 
refer you to Dr. Stillingfleet to assure you of this, 
for he is not unacquainted with her, though alto- 
gether ignorant of my affair till Thursday last, when 
he asked me, and I did not deny it, although I 
desire your leave till I declare it, as I will by the 
conveying her to Therfield, with your leave, within 
these four days. 

" I did not intend to finish it so hastily, but some 
prudential reasons make it necessary." 

The bridal of Francis Turner and Anna Horton 
took place, as specified by him, in St. Etheldreda's 
Chapel, on the 1 8th of October, the marriage service 
being solemnized by Bishop Gunning, and the wedded 
pair went to reside at Therfield Bectory. 

Francis Turner resigned the mastership of St. 
John's College on his marriage, and gave himself up 
to the comforts of domesticity. The union was most 
felicitous, and for upwards of two years the young 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 157 

divine was in the enjoyment of perfect happiness ; 
but in the beginning of the year 1G78 he was 
bereaved of his young, lovely, and beloved wife. 
Mrs. Turner died in childbed, on the 28th of January, 
and her death was attributed to the unskilful treat- 
ment of the Quaker nurse or midwife by whom she 
was attended. 

Mrs. Turner was only in the twenty-eighth year of 
her age, and inexpressibly dear to her husband. He 
buried her ' in the chancel of Therfield Church, and 
composed and preached her funeral sermon. The 
fair tomb he erected to her memory is a touching 
memorial of his love and grief. The elegiac Latin 
verses with which it is inscribed are his own compo- 
sition, commemorating her virtues and singular en- 
dowments, and " entreating the tears of the reader 
for his bereavement and sorrow at the loss of this 
honoured and holy matron." 

It is impossible for anything to be more loving and 
reverential, than the following touching letter, w^hich 
was addressed to him by his wife's mother, about 
seven weeks after their mutual bereavement : — 

"March 28. 
" Deae Son, 

u I hope these may now find you safe and well 
at London. My inquiries must ever pursue you, for 
I cannot satisfy myself, nor may, without apparent 
ingratitude, forbear continually to renew my thanks, 
which become every day more and more due, for 
your multiplied favours. The abundant kindness in 
your last letter, as an addition to all the former, con- 



158 LIVES OF THE SEVExH BISHOPS. 

stantly followed by real endeavours to oblige us all, 
justly claims more acknowledgments than can pos- 
sibly here be inserted. 

"I were unworthy the name of a Christian, or, 
indeed, of a human creature, if my concern were 
other than what it is for your happiness. That I 
have borne a great part with you in this affliction is 
really true, and might that have been any ease to 
vours I should with more cheerfulness have under- 
gone it ; for my daily infirmities remind me it will 
not be long before I may hope to meet this my dear 
child, who is but gone before me, and then we need 
never more fear parting; but that you may live 
happily many years upon earth, not only I, but all 
are concerned to pray. The God of Heaven bless 
and prosper all your undertakings for His glory, and 
the good of His church and kingdom. 

" I was troubled to hear of your disappointment in 
the dream of your resting-vault, but there is a Provi- 
dence in everything, and by the ordering of this 
affair you have not only approved the greatness of 
your love to the deceased, but also given, I think, 
an unparalleled example of the conquest over your- 
self, in composing and delivering her funeral sermon, 
the copy of which, if you please to intrust me with, it 
is .most just I should observe your injunction, which 
I here faithfully promise, and whilst 1 live shall never 
part with it. 

" I am mighty well satisfied to hear our dear little 
girl continues in a healthful and thriving condition, 
and beseech God Almighty to bless her and give you 
much comfort of her * 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 159 

"My sons at Oxford shall be ready to attend you 
when or wherever you please to command them. I 
am sure they can never be in better and more de- 
sirable company. There shall be care had of your 
horse to be ready against the time you speak of send- 
ing ; but the men say it is not safe to take him from 
grass into the stable till about ten days before his 
journey, because they are fearful of his feet, though 
now he runs they appear well. 

" It is time now to put an end to this scrawl and 
vour trouble, for which I beg your pardon, and shall 
add no more, but that I am, 

"Dear sir, 
" Your most unfeignedly affectionate 
" Mother and servant, 

"D. HORTON.* 

"I must not omit my dearest service to my 
honoured good sister. My husband, and daughter 
Davy, and all here, speak abundance of love and 
service to you, of which they beg your acceptance. 

" For the Reverend and Worthy Dr. 
Tamer, at his house in Amen 
Corner, at the end of Paternoster 
Row, London, Tliese" 

The fondly loved and early lost wife of Francis 
Turner left one infant girl, named Margaret, on whoni 
the desolate widower lavished the unbounded affec- 

* Rawlinson MSS., Bodleian Library, Oxford. 



160 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

tion of his heart. Francis Turner never married 
again. 

He ceased not, however, to cultivate his poetic 
talents. His ' Hymn before Sleep ' is worthy of 
becoming better known than it is, for the sweet spirit 
of devotion that pervades it. It is too long for inser- 
tion, but the following verses may serve as a speci- 
men : — 

The Sleep Hymn. 

" Our day's labour at an end. 

Now 'tis time to take some ease, 
Sleep, our nature's gentle friend, 
Waits our weary limbs to seize. 

*' Minds, in tempests all the day 

Backed with cares, and overprest ; 
Drenched in deep oblivion, they 
All the nigbt lie charmed to rest. 

" 'Tis the God of Nature's will 
To bestow this sweet repose — 
This soft medicine to distil — 
Balm of human pains and woes. 
****** 

" Tired with labours of the day, 

Though our bodies sleep controls, 
Hearts awake, to Christ shall pray, 
Kest and centre of our souls." 

• These words are more musical sung than recited. 
Try them to the melody of the New Year's Hymn — 

u Whilst with ceaseless course the sun." 

As the son of the loyal Dean of Canterbury, 
Francis Turner was well known to the king and 
the Duke of York, and at the recommendation of 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 161 

Sancroft he was appointed chaplain to his Koyal 
Highness, for although the duke had unhappily 
joined the communion of the Church of Koine, he 
always kept a chaplain of the Church of England in 
his household ; not only because it was an indispen- 
sable matter of royal etiquette that he, the heir- 
presumptive to the crown, should do so, but for 
the sake of the Protestant portion of his establish- 
ment, and the ladies of the Church of England 
in the service of the duchess and the Princess 
Anne. 

Turner was in attendance during the duke's exile 
in Scotland, and found himself treated not only with 
liberality, but very great kindness and even confi- 
dence ; moreover, his Koyal Highness promised of his 
own accord to use his influence with the king his 
brother, that Turner might have the appointment of 
Dean of Windsor and Royal Almoner on the decease 
of the present incumbent of those offices, who was 
not either aged or ill at that time. " Yet," writes 
Turner to Sancroft, "I perceive by his Highness, 
who must be allowed the character of the best master, 
that ho presses the business on farther to the secre- 
tary than I wished during the Dean of Windsor's 
good health, which I pray God to increase, and 
beseech your grace to believe. As I do not set my 
heart or thoughts upon this thing, so I would rather 
go without it (though my name be up) than push for 
it indecently. But having this occasion to touch upon 
the affair, I will presume to acquaint your grace that 
I now better understand what I may expect from my 
lord Bishop of London than I did when I took my 

M 



162 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

leave of your grace ; for I have received by my 
brother (his lordship's chaplain) a very obliging 
message, ■ that, though considering what Dr. ex- 
pected from him, he could not think it proper for 
him to be active for anybody else, yet he would be 
perfectly indifferent, and would be very well satisfied 
if your grace would fix it for me, and that he is very 
sorry he could not appear for me actively.' 

" I think fit to inform your grace of this, as it would 
have troubled me if your grace and my lord of 
London had but seemed to differ in a business where 
I was concerned. 

" My lord, for want of other company I have more 
discourse with the duke than otherwise should come 
to my share, and upon all occasions I find he places 
his hopes altogether upon the episcopal party, and 
mainly upon the bishops themselves, your grace 
especially ; wishing and desiring that your grace will 
take all opportunity of encouraging the king (that 
was the duke's own word) to be steady in well 
chosen resolutions, and laying before his Majesty how 
fatal a thing it would be now to trace back aa'ain the 
ground he has gained, and how mighty safe to stick 
by his old friends and the laws. 

" I send this by the black box, which cannot mis- 
carry." What a wonderful box that must have been ! 
"I have nothing," continues Turner, "to entertain 
your grace withal from hence, unless it be this, that 
our John a Leyden party grows not more numerous 
to appearance, but more extravagantly wild in their 
notions, and divided into many hopeful schisms among 
themselves. On the other side our Common Prayer 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 163 

Books do sell, the booksellers tell me, in great 
numbers in Edinburgh." And this in spite of Mrs. 
Anderson the kings printers widow's patent mono- 
polising the printing and selling of all Bibles and 
Prayer Books, and the shameful types and absurd 
errors of the press which pervaded all those printed 
in her office. 

If the Duke of York did no other good in Scotland, 
he at least put an end to this dreadful abuse of the 
royal privilege, and threw open the Bible and Prayer 
Book monopoly to the people of Scotland. No doubt 
his learned and zealous episcopal chaplain, Dr. 
Francis Turner, was an active instrument in this 
admirable work. 

The Duke of York instructed Turner to write to 
Sancroft in behalf of Mr. Gordon, a missionary chap- 
lain of the Church of England, who had been work- 
ing very hard, in the then English colony of New 
York, for the propagation of the Gospel. 

"I give your grace this trouble," writes Turner, 
from Edinburgh to Sancroft, August 19th, 1681, u by 
the duke's command, in favour of this bearer, Mr. 
Gordon, a clergyman born in this country, but one 
who has served his Boyal Highness several years at 
his plantation of New York, for which the duke, like 
a gracious master, thinks he owes him some kindness ; 
but besides this public service, he is now in hard 
circumstances, for when he was very young he was so 
ill advised as to give a bond to my Lord Privy Seal 
that he would resign a small living, which his lord- 
ship conferred upon him, if his resignation were 
demanded. Now, upon my lord's entering into the 



164 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

faction against the duke, this bond is threatened to 
be sued." 

To what paltry exercises of spite did the party 
against the brave royal admiral descend, that 
even a hard-working missionary clergyman of the 
English Church was marked out for ruin by that 
mean-souled faction, because his services had been 
acknowledged and appreciated by the duke, although 
he was unhappily of a different communion. 

Gordon was not, however, devoid of friends. " The 
good Bishop of Winchester, in whose diocese the living 
is," continues Turner, " encourages him, as he assures 
me, to stand the trial whether such a bond be valid 
or not, and some great men are forward enough to 
stand by him. His Highness gives me order to 
make it his request to your grace that you will 
confer some employment upon him, or procure him 
some from the king, for his support and mainte- 
nance." 

Lucky Mr. Gordon ! The unprovoked and most 
unkind persecution of my Lord Privy Seal, seeking to 
deprive him of his poor incumbency, was the means 
of interesting the most illustrious patrons in his 
behalf, who had both the power and the will to 
endow him with ecclesiastical preferments of which 
he had never before ventured to dream. 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 165 



CHAPTER IL 

After a pleasant sojourn in Scotland, Francis Turner, 
on the Duke of York's recal to England, returned 
with him to London, and took up his abode in his 
prebendal house at Amen Corner. 

He was appointed Dean of Windsor and Lord 
Almoner to King Charles early in 1683, and on the 
3rd of July the same year, he writes in the following 
grateful strain to Sancroft, who had recommended 
him to the king for the vacant see of Rochester. 

" My heart is so full that I shall go down to the 
Oxford entertainments with too great a load upon it, 
unless, with your grace's permission, I may ease it to 
you. My lord, let me state my case to you thus in 
short. I have eaten your bread these eighteen years 
at Therfield, for that living, in equity, was yours. 
When you left a deanery and a living it w r as your 
condescending goodness to make it mine. 

" Though I owed my place in St. Paul's to the king 
and the duke's favour, yet the kindness with which 
your grace managed that business for me with my 
lord of London, and your treating me ever since with 
that high rate of obligingness, particularly in this 



166 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

affair of Windsor, has made me think thanks, rather 
than be troublesome with so many express acknow- 
ledgments. And on last Sunday morning your grace 
did so perfectly surprise me with another heap of 
favours, that I have scarcely yet recovered my amaze- 
ment, so as to go along with my discourse on the 
subject. I had rather go to my knees, and beseech 
Almighty God to make me and keep me humble, and 
able in some measure to serve the Church, and your 
grace. 

" I will say no more, but only repeat one passage in 
a letter, which I did presume to write to your grace 
upon your promotion, that if the good old Dean of 
Canterbury, who is now in Heaven, were as your 
grace is now, at Lambeth, I could not pay him truer 
duty and service than I was resolved to pay your 
grace ; wherein I did but fulfil the will of the dead, 
for he directed me to do so, and to be ever advised 
by you, as he commanded my two younger brothers 
in his written will, leaving an estate between them, 
that if any unhappy difference fell out between them, 
they should not offer to go to law, but should be 
determined by his most honoured friend Dr. Sancroft, 
[then] Dean of St. Paul's. 

" My lord, I think fit to acquaint your grace that 
two persons of note in the duke's family have, within 
these two days, sifted me at such a rate as (though I 
sent them away no wiser than they came), I am apt 
to suspect that my master, in the overflowings of his 
affections, may have given out some intimation of 
this business, of which his Highness and your grace 
discoursed in his closet. 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 167 

" 1 think that you may please to consider whether 
my lord of Clarendon should not be told something 
of it by your grace, rather than it should come to 
his knowledge by some other way ; besides, he may 
prepare his noble brother to be directed in it by your 
grace. 

"I shall only add, that if your grace persists in 
your favourable opinion that I am capable of serving 
you at Eochester, I shall be very well contented if 
St. Paul's may be left for my winter quarters in case 
my way to Westminster should be obstructed. But 
to make room for the most worthy Dr. Beveridge, 
and for my own sake too, I cannot but wish the 
design of my succeeding at Westminster may not 
fail." 

A delay of two months occurred before the day 
of Francis Turner's consecration to the bishopric of 
Eochester was appointed. The appointment caused 
general satisfaction ; but it was hailed with peculiar 
joy by his venerable friend, Peter Gunning, Bishop 
of Ely, who wrote to congratulate him on his acces- 
sion to the hierarchy, in the following affectionate 
terms : — 

"Sept. 3, 1683.* 
" My dear Lord and Brother, 

" I have longed for this day now these many 
weeks since, and hearing of it weekly from 31r. 
Everard, and yet still the hope deferred was almost 
the only personal sickness I have felt, so that you 
may believe that my health and business will not 

* Tanner MSS. 



168 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

only permit me, but be promoted by this slow journey 
to you, to be a glad witness of your promotion. Your 
election, my good lord elect, seems everywhere, to all 
your friends and enemies, if there be any such, so 
welcome, and such good tidings, that it is easily be- 
lieved to have been (as the word of the canonists is) 
" electu per spiritu sanctu" You are no less welcome, 
I assure you, to the Church than to the Court. God 
be blessed, that He hath put it into the heart of the 
king and the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

"My feeble hands, such as are the hands of a poor 
man, full of infirmities, I have lift up unto God for 
you, that He would bless, direct, and prosper you in 
your procedure, and by all degrees of ecclesiastical 
honour and spiritual, joy, till you come into that 
everlasting. 

" Surely, therefore, if God bless and keep me in my 
journey, you shall most readily have not only pro- 
tensur manur, but also the friendly embraces of my 
arms. I hope to be in London on Thursday night, 
the 13th of this instant, in order to the 1 6th. 

"My humble and hearty service to your good 
mother. I rejoice in her joy, and comfort now of 
her old age. God bless your young daughter. One 
St. Peter had no more that was read of after his 
apostolate. 

" I thank you for my venison, which we intend here 
to spend on Sunday next, the day of our thanks- 
giving. 

" God be ever most gracious to you, my dear 
brother, and bring us together to partake eternally 
in the ioys of the Kingdom of Heaven ; and, in order 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 169 

thereunto, make us, in our united stations, serviceable 
unto His Church, with acceptable services to our great 
master, in whom I rest. 

" Your most faithful, affectionate servant, 
" Friend, and brother, 

" Peter Ely." 

This most interesting letter of the aged prelate 
concludes with a postscript, relating to the recent 
destructive fire in Ely, which, though of more per- 
sonal connection with the biography of its future 
bishop, Francis Turner, is well worthy of record as a 
contemporary document of that event, and indicative 
of the pious feelings of his venerable friend and cor- 
respondent, who communicates the following par- 
ticulars : — 

" By a high wind leaping from one street to another 
at a quarter of a mile distant, our fire at Ely, so 
dangerous in more places than one, yet through God's 
great mercy, was seasonably stopped after some 
fifteen houses, such as they were, were burned ; God 
very graciously staying His rough wind, and turning 
it towards the fields, outwardly, not upon the town or 
churches, which otherwise had been in great danger. 

"Indorsed. — To the Right Reverend 
Dr. Francis Turner, Lord Elect 
Bishop of Rochester. — These.' 3 

The consecration of Francis Turner as Bishop of 
Bochester duly took place, but, in consequence of 
his office of Lord Almoner to the king, he was much 



170 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

oftener at Court than would otherwise have been the 
case. He writes to Sancroft from Windsor, in July, 
1684, about the Bishop of Lichfield, whom the primate 
had suspended for misconduct, notwithstanding the 
avowed patronage of the Duchess of Cleveland, whose 
son, the Duke of Southampton, had married his niece. 
The duchess therefore, as a mother, of course would 
endeavour to misrepresent the matter to the king. 
Sancroft had requested Turner to explain the real 
state of the case to Charles. 

"I thought it of importance enough to trouble your 
grace," writes Turner, " with a short account how I per- 
formed your commands in the Bishop of Lichfield's 
affair. I discoursed it largely with the duke, and it 
was his opinion that I should wait upon him to his 
Majesty to tell the story. Accordingly, his Royal 
Highness beckoned me in the drawing-room, and the 
king, whose hand the Bishop of Bristol (Lake) and 
I had lately kissed, demanded of me, pleasantly, 
' What news of the reverend father ? ' I did in few 
words acquaint his Majesty with the case, and he 
well approved what had been done, and spake of the 
man with the utmost contempt. All this was aloud 
and openly in the circle. 

" Then followed a great deal of raillery upon the 
sordidness and refractoriness of the unhappy man. 
Your grace has nothing more to secure in this busi- 
ness, except matters of form at the Commons, unless 
the cause be removed into Westminster Hall, where 
I am told the delinquent places all his hope of 
success, which he is not likely to get at Whitehall or 
London, 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 171 

" The Lord Keeper assures me that he has spoken 
to the king extremely home in this business, and his 
Majesty declares he will do nothing to the prejudice 
of the Church and its discipline." 

Sancroft carried his point triumphantly in respect 
to the suspension of the simoniacal bishop. 

Turner, in his next letter to Sancroft, mentions a 
personal request the Princess Anne had preferred in 
behalf of her chaplain ; " the first she had made for 
anything of the kind, and this entirely her own, and 
by no means to be represented as a suit of the duke 
her father." 

On the death of his loved and venerated friend, 
Peter Gunning, Francis Turner was translated to 
Ely, where he was most affectionately received ; and 
went to reside with his widowed mother and promising 
child Margaret, who was the sole joy and comfort of 
his widowed heart. 

The death of Charles II. occurred soon after his 
consecration to the see of Ely. Francis Turner was 
appointed to preach the coronation sermon at the 
inauguration of his old master and royal friend 
James II. 

Soon after his arrival at the episcopal palace of 
Ely, a series of curious and deeply interesting letters 
were addressed to him by a poor Quaker, who had 
been incarcerated for more than five years in the 
jail of that town. The name of this unfortunate 
person who had been cruelly torn from his wife and 
family, and prevented from exercising his harmless 
trade for their maintenance, was Samuel Cater ; he 
was apparently a man of good education, and of 



172 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

infinitely less formality than persons of his com- 
munity generally were at that period, since he 
scruples not to address the bishop by his title, and 
speaks of the king and other dignitaries by theirs ; 
which renders them documents of great interest, 
especially as it is perfectly original matter never 
before published. 

This is the opening of Samuel Cater's first 
letter : — 

" For the Bishop of Ely. 

" Friend, whereas it is come to pass that thou art 
come to this great place to be bishop of this diocese 
of Ely; whereby, as I understand, thou hast great 
power in this country, either to keep in prison or to 
set at liberty such as are cast in and committed upon 
such cases as relate to matter of conscience or con- 
scientious scruples relating to the worship of God. 
However, of this I am satisfied, through long expe- 
rience, that which way thou dost incline, either to 
show favour and gentleness towards them that dissent 
from your way of worship in this country, or desire 
to have the laws severely put in execution, that way 
I find them that are the more inferior officers under 
thee will and do observe to carry themselves towards 
us who are in their hands ; therefore I thought it 
expedient to lay before thee my condition, w T ho am in 
present sufferings at this time in this prison in Ely, 
and for no other cause than conscience." 

It is certain that Turner extended some kindness 
to the poor prisoner, from the testimony of the follow- 
ing letter which is here given : — 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 173 

"Right Reverend Father in God! My most 
Reverenced Lord of Ely ! Right Honourable and most 
Honoured Lord High Almoner to the King ! I did 
think that the proper duty of the season (betwixt my 
last letter and this) was prayer to God, to assist you 
with His Holy Spirit of grace and wisdom in the con- 
cerns w T herein your lordship was engaged upon the 
great change that the God unchangeable had made 
(in the face of the earth under us and the sky above 
us), yet with the least change of the estate of the 
poor of England that probably could be expected 
or hoped for. Blessed be the Lord our God who has 
the hearts of kings at his command ; and blessed be 
our sovereign lord the king for his contributing so 
cheerfully to the same by a gracious wise compliance. 
We did read in the prints how happily the solemnities 
of the king and coronation did proceed ; and I read 
in your printed sermon (conveyed unto me by my 
Lord Hewett's servant this week) an excellent com- 
posure of pious and religious eloquence and prudence. 
In this you were concerned as sole and chief, though 
in the former as a star in a constellation of 
heavenly lights. 4 The reading of that makes me 
afraid to send anything penned by myself to the 
sight of your lordship, and to the censure of your 
lordship's judgment. But yet T hope the maturity 
of your lordship's wisdom will be ready both to 
pardon the follies of youth and the dotages of a 
decayed old age. And in a good degree of confident 
assurance of this, I present unto your lordship my 
humblest thanks for all your former favours bestowed 
upon me innumerate, and my joyful congratulation 



. 



174 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

at the happy dispatch of all your parts in both the 
parts of the coronation solemnity — I mean what con- 
cerned both the regal magnificence and the religious 
prudence required to make it excellent. 

* I know not what I need to insert but a tender of 
most humble duty to your lordship's reverend mother 
and her dear grandchild. I will pray for no cause 
nor thing then but for my conscience towards God, 
for through the help and assistance of His grace I 
have so carried myself in my conversation amongst 
my neighbours and countrymen, as that I can with a 
good conscience say, what hath any man against me, 
except it be for the law of my God and for my 
obedience unto Jesus Christ, as I believe I ought to 
obey him ; for which cause, about five years and four 
months since, I was summoned by the bailiff to appear 
at the quarter sessions ; and when I was there I was 
asked whether I would take the oath of allegiance ; 
but I being conscientious of an oath, told them that 
for conscience' sake I dare not swear at all ; for Christ 
Jesus, whom I desire to obey, commands us not to 
swear at all, Matthew the 5th chapter, verse the 
34th ; also, James the 5th chapter, verse the 12th ; 
upon which the jailor w r as commanded to take me 
away and to keep me close prisoner, which command 
he observed with great severity. 

" After which, through the instigation of some whom 
it would have become better to have manifested a 
more Christian spirit, he stirred up the bishop 
against me, so that while I was kept a close pri- 
soner upon the other commitment as before, the 
writ {capias capiendo) was brought ^against me and 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 175 

delivered into the jailor's hands; upon the which I 
was kept about three years so close that I might 
not go home to my family but twice all that time. 
Once I had leave from the bishop to see my wife 
when she was like to die, and another time upon 
the like occasion by the leave of another ; but after 
these three years' close confinement the late bishop 
grew more gentle towards me, and either by his 
order, or his permission, I had liberty to go home 
some day every week to take care of my family, and 
to go to my market to buy firkins of butter for the 
cheesemongers in London, by whom I am employed 
as a factor for several of them, as it is well known to 
the country ; which liberty continued until near the 
time of thy coming to town, and then Robert Maw r of 
Littleport threatened the jailor, as he saith, that if he 
did not keep me a close prisoner he would complain 
to the see. I was then called in, and have been kept 
ever since from going to my market, or to my har- 
vest, or into country to take up moneys upon returns, 
which is a great hindrance to me in my business, 
and a wrong to them I am employed for. 

" Now it is upon me to lay this my suffering con- 
dition before thee, not knowing whether thou may est 
know whether there be such a one now in bonds ; 
or if thou hast heard of it, it may be from some 
that may endeavour to render things at the worst, 
which is not well for any so to do, let them pre- 
tend what they will, for love worketh no ill to 
his neighbour, but it is said, Romans the 13th 
chapter and verse the 10th, 'love is the fulfilling 
of the law.' And now, having laid this my suffer- 



176 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

ing condition before thee, I shall leave it to thy con- 
sideration, hoping that a spirit of moderation and 
tenderness towards them that are in suffering may 
appear in thee, that I may receive some ease by thee 
from the straitness of my bonds, which if I do, I shall 
take it kindly at thy hands ; and I do believe thou 
wilt never have cause to repent thee, for Christ saith 
' blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.' 
u From him that truly desires the good of all men. 

"Samuel Cater. 

" Ely prison, the 5th day of the seventh month, 
commonly called September, 1685.* 

" For the Bishop, at his Palace in Fly. 
These." 

* Tanner MSS., Oxford. 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 177 



CHAPTEE III. 

The unthankful office of attending the unfortunate 
Duke of Monmouth on the scaffold, in conjunction 
with Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Dr. Tenison, 
and Dr. Gilbert Burnet, was assigned to Turner. 
Both Turner and Ken have been severely censured 
for urging the duke to express some signs of contri- 
tion for the bloodshed and miserv of which his 
rash enterprise had been the cause ; but he was 
perfectly callous to the sufferings of his devoted 
followers, and to everything but his own personal 
troubles. Instead of expressing the slightest peni- 
tence for his misconduct as a husband, he gloried in 
his illicit attachment to Lady Henrietta Wentworth, 
for whom he had forsaken his ill-treated wife, while 
he lavished her wealth on his paramour. It was not, 
therefore, surprising that ministers of the gospel 
endeavoured to awaken the self-deluded man to a 
sense of his guilt, in order to prevent him from enter- 
ing into eternity without praying for pardon and 
peace for the breach of God's commandments against 
adultery and homicide, for whoever incites rebellion 
is undoubtedly guilty of a breach of the sixth article 
of the Decalogue. It is possible that Francis Turner, 

N 



178 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

who was of an ardent, impetuous nature, might allow 
his feelings to carry him too far ; but he was no 
time-server, for he incurred the displeasure of his 
royal master, King James, by a very strong sermon 
against the errors of the Eomish Church, which he 
preached on the 5th of November following. 

Lady Eussell writes to her spiritual adviser, Dr. 
Fitzwilliam : — "Lord Bedford expresses himself 
hugely obliged to the Bishop of Ely, your friend, to 
whom you justly give the title of good, if the cha- 
racter he very generally bears justly belongs to 
him." 

Even Burnet, " that accuser of the brethren," as 
he has been shrewdly styled by an ecclesiastical 
writer of the period, speaks of this prelate in the 
following terms : — " Turner, Bishop of Ely ; sincere 
and good-natured, but of too quick imagination and 
too defective judgment." This appears to have been 
pretty near the truth. 

The following quaint letter was addressed to 
Turner soon after this by the Bev. Barnabas Oley : — 

"Eight Eeverend Father in God, my most 
Honoured and Worthy Lord, 

"I know not whether it be the greater in- 
civility, to forbear congratulating your coming to 
settle at your London palace, where you will find 
store of great employments to waste those spirits 
which you have re-collected at your Bromley retire- 
ment, or to crowd in this (vain parenthesis of a 
letter of mine) amidst those throngs of businesses 
and addresses which will so press upon your lordship 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 179 

as to be troublesome, if they were not tokens of 
authority to your lordship, and joy at your felicity. 
But my lines shall be few only to tender my must 
humble duties of bounden thanks to your good lord- 
ship for all your signal favours bestowed upon my un- 
worthy self, and to beg more ; namely, your episcopal 
blessing when you read these rude lines, and your 
daily remembrance of me in those prayers you make 
for miserable sinners. I beseech your lordship to 
present my most humble duties to your dear and 
venerable mother. Give me leave to insert my due 
respects to all your domestics that were servants to 
my good lord your holy predecessor. There is a 
disciple, Mrs. Clark, widow, a convert of my lord's, 
at Whitehall, that has been sore exercised in afflic- 
tions. I pray Mr. Ouldham or Mr. Binks to visit her. 
I do it sometimes by letters ; but they be not power- 
ful (a§> St. Paul's was), no more would my conference 
be if I was personally present. The Papists will 
not fail to assault her anew if they have the least 
notice that she be not assisted. I do know my duty, 
Lord make me fit to do it. I pray daily for your 
lordship, your order, your dear mother, and your 
little daughter, motherless, as to her immediate 
mother, but well provided for in the doubled cares 
of father and grandmother. 

u To the Right Reverend Father 
in God, Francis, Lord Bishop of 
Fly, my much honoured lord, at 
Ely House, in HoTbom, London. 
Humbly present this" 



ISO LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

There are a great many more of Oley's quaint 
letters to his loved and venerated bishop, Francis 
Turner, among the Tanner Collection in the Bodleian 
library, but rather elaborate and prosy, though va- 
luable specimens of the style of old-world clerical 
correspondence. The death of old Barnabas Oley, 
which occurred the year after Francis Turner's conse- 
cration to the bishopric of Ely, was deeply lamented 
in his parish, where he was succeeded by the Reve- 
rend Thomas Jessop, a parson of the Trulliber class. 
It is impossible to refrain from smiling at the cata- 
logue of his misdeeds and unclerical conduct which 
Mr. Charles Cesar, a gentleman in the next parish, 
placed before Bishop Turner, in reply to his inquiries 
as to the manner in which the said unworthy succes- 
sor of Barnabas Oley performed his parochial duty. 

" Great G-ransden, May 31st, 1686. 
" My Lokd, 

"In obedience to your command, I have made 
some inquiry how Mr. Thomas Jessop performs his 
duty in his own parish. But it is a hard task to 
give your lordship a particular account whether he 
curtails and mangles the divine service in his own 
church, or reads it as he ought to do. For, my lord, 
there is not one in his parish but goes to plough and 
cart, and those, too, so ignorant, being bred and 
taught by his doctrine and example four-and-thirty 
years, that there are few or none can read the psalms 
alternatively, or make the responses as the Church 
enjoins us. And good Mr. Oley hath taught us in 
Great Gransden that it is our duty to keep our own 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 181 

parish church, and for that reason I have not 
employed any but those of his own parish to watch 
him ; and this is all I can find by them. That before 
Mr. Oley died he (Jessop) never wore the surplice but 
upon communion days, and that was but twice a 
year. Christmas and Easter days ; and now since my 
complaint of him he doth wear it every Sunday, and 
also upon Whitsunday he had a small communion. 
And Saturday last. May 29th. his bells chimed in by 
nine o'clock in the morning, because he was to go to 
Potton Market, which he does every Saturday, and 
hath always one chamber there, where the country 
peuple borrow money of him from bl. to 100?., where 
he gets money also by writing of bonds for himself 
and others. And he keeps this custom in his parish. 
For the dead — if their friends pay him ten shillings 
he will preach a funeral sermon. If ten groats, the 
corpse shall come into the middle alley of the church 
while evening prayer, or only the psalms and lesson 
appointed be read. But if they will not pay him 
os. M., then he will only meet the corpse at the grave, 
and make a quick dispatch for the common fee for 
burial. But I cannot hear that he ever met the corpse 
at the church gate, reading those places of scripture 
as the Church commands, or ever wore the surplice 
at burial of the dead before my last complaint to 
your lordship. I am glad, my lord, that my com- 
plaint has made him more mindful of his duty than 
formerly, but I doubt it is more formidine jxence, 
than virtutis amove. However your lordship deals 
with him in his lifetime, it is very probable that your 
lordship may present a more deserving clerk at his 



182 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

death, for he is sixty-four years old ; and upon this ac- 
count I humbly presume to make a motion to your 
lordship, which, if I could be so happy to obtain, in 
getting a conditional promise from your good lord- 
ship, that if Mr. Jessop should die when you are 
Bishop of Ely, that your lordship would please to 
present Mr. Willis Atkins, our deserving vicar of 
Great Gransden, to be rector of Little Gransden, 
which would cause him to leave his fellowship at 
Clare Hall College, and live constantly amongst us ; 
which would be a great obligation not only to me, 
but to my neighbours in both parishes, and to Sir 
John Hewett, your kinsman, for Sir John and Mr. 
Atkins began their acquaintance at Clare Hall, both 
of them eating their commons at table there. And 
truly, my lord, it will be esteemed a civil respect to 
the memory of our dear friend, the Eeverend Mr. 
Oley, for I am sure it was his great desire that his 
successor might reside constantly in our parish, and 
if he could have had any assurance of this from 
Clare Hall College, he had given fifty pounds yearly 
augmentation to our vicarage for ever ; but now, my 
lord, Gransden has lost the benefit of Mr. Oley's 
good intention, and the college will not make any 
augmentation to our vicar, though they have the 
rectory and a lordship too in our parish. But if your 
lordship will be so merciful and charitable to make 
this conditional promise aforesaid, to our large parish 
with a small vicarage of 30Z., it will revive our 
drooping spirits, and make us all pray most heartily 
for the prosperity and long life of your lordship ; and 
then Mr. Oley's large vicarage house may be made 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 183 

use of, and do more charitable good deeds, which 
now is likely to stand empty and cost our vicar some 
charge to repair it. 

" Mr. Say well, the rector of Willingam, hath bor- 
rowed Mr. Atkins' pulpit for next Sunday, and we do 
all expect a funeral sermon for our late reverend 
vicar. Mr. Atkins hath persuaded S. Wright, a 
Bachelor of Arts, an ingenious man, to be our school- 
master in Gransden, if Mr. Thursby will encourage 
him with a yearly allowance, which is warranted by 
Mr. Oley's last will ; and I am very confident it was 
Mr. Oley's design, when he built the brick school- 
house chiefly at his own charge. Good my lord per- 
suade Mr. Thursby to do this great piece of charity 
to poor Gransden. 

" I am, 

" My lord, 
" Your lordship's most humble and faithful servant, 

" Charles Cesar. 

" These to the Right Honourable 
Francis, Lord Bishop of Ely, at Ely 
House, near St. Andrew s Church, 
in Holborn, London — Present." 

A still more amusing description of Parson Jessop's 
manner of performing his duties is given by Mr. 
Cesar a few months later ; an account difficult to read 
without laughing, though doubtless it was a matter 
of grievous vexation to all the parishioners of Little 
Gransden, and their learned bishop, Dr. Francis 
Turner. 



184 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Mr. Cesar appears to consider Parson Jessop's 
conduct on the 5th of November peculiarly atrocious ; 
though possibly his employing himself in leeching 
his poor neighbour's inflamed eyes was a much more 
charitable occupation than anathematising Christians 
of a different creed for the abortive plot of a party of 
fanatic lunatics in the reign of King James I. Be 
this as it may, Cesar's commentaries are too racy to 
be omitted. 

" Great Grransden, Nov. 18, 1686. 
"My Lokd, 

Having had the honour and encouragement to 
receive two kind letters from your lordship, I am 
bold to trouble you with a third concerning my 
near neighbour, Mr. Thomas Jessop, rector of Little 
Gransclen, in Cambridgeshire, in your lordship's 
diocese and jurisdiction. My lord, since the death 
of our late reverend vicar, we are very sensible of 
that great and inestimable loss of Mr. Barnabas Oley, 
for now we have no settled vicar to live with us ; we 
never have the happiness to see a clergyman but on 
Sundays ; none to visit our sick and bury our dead ; 
no public prayers on fasting days or holidays, which 
makes us desirous to walk to Little Gransden church 
for the benefit of public prayers ; and we should be 
most heartily glad if we had a reverend, learned, 
and orthodox clergyman there ; but our case is not 
so happy. For upon Friday, the fifth of this No- 
vember, I designed to go thither, and did order my 
servants to give me notice when it began to chime at 
that church ; but hearing nothing till my clock struck 
eleven, I went immediately, and found all the doors 



TURNER, BISHOr OF ELY. 185 

of that church and chancel shut. I went then to a 
farmer's house near the churchyard, and inquired. 
They told me that the second peal was rung about 
nine o'clock, but no bells stirred since. Then I sent 
to Mr. Jessop, to know if he intended a sermon, 
homily, or prayers, appointed for the Gunpowder 
Treason. His answer was, ' that he had been hindered 
by a patient that wanted eye-sight,' and Mr. Jessop 
was then setting of horse-leeches to the man's ears, 
but he promised to hasten to church. And I do 
verily believe that it was past noon before we began 
morning prayer, and then he hurried it over, loud 
and fast, more like a schoolboy than a grave divine, 
without sermon or homily. Yet it wanted but six 
minutes of one o'clock when I came home to dinner. 
A festival turned into a fast-day. In the prayers for 
the royal family, he named King Charles, but pre- 
sently said King James ; and for tke Princess Anne 
of Denmark, he said, Anne, the Princess of Den- 
mark. My lord, I humbly beg your pardon for this 
trouble from 

" Your most faithful, humble servant, 

" Char. Cesar. 

" These to the Right Honourable 
Francis, Lord Bishop of Ely, at 
Ely Souse, in Holborn, London, 
Present." 

How the parishioners of Little Gransclen settled 
matters with their droll vicar, no existing evidence 
appears. 

Turner was much troubled with two of his maternal 



186 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

uncles, sons of Mr. Secretary Windebanke, who ap- 
pears to have had a very numerous progeny, two of 
whom were unprovided, and in great poverty. 

Christopher and Francis Windebanke were constant 
beggars to their nephew, the Bishop of Ely. They 
were residing in France, and appear to have become 
Roman Catholics, but that did not prevent the bishop 
from ministering to the necessities of his sick and 
suffering kinsmen. Francis Windebanke says, in one 
of his letters, " We are both full of acknowledgments 
for your lordship's charity to us, This is the more 
obliging, as it proceeds from your generous heart, 
and without any solicitation on our side, and we can- 
not but bless God with all our souls, who moves your 
good nature to succour your poor distressed uncles, 
whom all other assistance fails." 

Francis Windebanke writes again in March, 1686, 
acknowledging further charity from the bishop, and 
complaining of the unkindness of their prosperous 
brother, Dr. Windebanke, one of the court physicians, 
in misrepresenting matters to him, lest he, too, should 
have to render his aid. 

" Your lordship's continual favours and charity to 
my brother, as well as to myself, oblige me to per- 
petual acknowledgments, and most humble thanks 
for your last of the 15th of February, which has been 
infinitely welcome, and the more, because it was less 
expected, it being beyond expectation, that, so soon 
after your great charity of ten pounds, by Mr. Hill, 
you should please to augment the sum by this last 
supply. There is none but your generous heart, so 



TURNEK, BISHOP OF ELY. 187 

full of piety and goodness, that could invent so many 
ways to exercise your liberality towards your poor 
old uncle, who owes you the preservation of his life, 
bv the subsistence you please to furnish him. I dare 
promise that he employs every moment of it in beg- 
ging of Almighty God to reward as bountifully so 
many good works, and in this duty be certain I shall 
ever join with him. I have given him your lord- 
ship's letters, that he may consult his friends about 
the performance of the good advice you give, to make 
his design succeed, and I shall give you an account 
of that by the post, which may, perhaps, come sooner 
to your hands than this, that I intend to send by Mr. 
Hill ; and henceforward I shall make use of Sir 
William Trumbull's packet to send to your lordship, 
and beseech you to convey yours to me by the same 
way, for he is extraordinary civil to my brother, and 
has sent me a compliment, that he will come to see 
me, with his lady ; and I doubt not, he will be careful 
to send me your letters. The gentleman to whom 
you addressed this last packet, made me pay 36 sols 
for it, and I believe the other way will be cost free. 

"I am glad your lordship has inquired into my 
Spanish (?) sister's debts, and that you have discovered 
by her son that they are not so formidable as my 
brother, the doctor, did heretofore report to you ; 
which, I confess I never believed, but saw, as plainly 
as I do now, that it was a mere fiction of his to 
hinder my poor brother Christopher's return, for fear 
of being burthened with him there ; w T hich appears 
visibly by what your lordship writes, that her son 
assures that whatsoever debts she has, they are to 



188 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

such persons as will never require them of her hus- 
band ; but I never showed the doctor's letter to my 
brother here, for fear of increasing his affliction." 

This letter, from Francis Windebanke, is quickly 
succeeded by the following from Christopher. 

"Paris, May 14, 1687. 
* My Lord, 

" A month at the least, after the date of your 
lordship's letter of the 7th of March, it was given me 
by a very honest gentleman, Mr. Cresset, governor 
to the Lord Hinchingbrook, with the enclosed succour, 
bearing date the 26th February ; for both which I 
must always acknowledge myself extremely obliged 
to your lordship. It is a charity towards a poor rela- 
tion, unfortunate and undone, not otherwise by his 
own means, than by his offence against Almighty 
God. Indeed, I did want that assistance very much, 
as it came very seasonably, and I render your lord- 
ship my most hearty thanks for it, and the more 
because I receive none from anybody but yourself. 
My Lady Hales is in good health, and accompanies 
her true affections, with my sister's and mine, to your 
lordship, my most dear sister, and all the rest of 
our relations. Mademoiselle de Coursillon hath left 
the convent long since, but not her correspondence 
with nor her kindness to my sister, who she writes 
very often to, and sends her, for me, a bottle of wine 
sometimes, or some such little testimony of her kind- 
ness, though I never had the honour to see her ; but 
whenever she desired it. I have been very dilisrent 



TURNER. BISHOP OF ELY. 180 

in going on her errands to Mr. Temple and others. 
I deferred giving your lordship this trouble till the 
arrival of Mr. Hill, in hopes, as your lordship men- 
tioned in yours, he would have brought a letter from 
your lordship for my sister, that our answers might 
have returned together. We condole the loss of my 
Lady Eochester, whose sickness we find hindered 
your lordship from giving my sister that satisfaction, 
which to her, is the greatest imaginable. We are 
both very much joyed that my most dear sister, your 
lordship's mother, is so vigorous and in so perfect 
health. That God Almighty will be pleased to con- 
tinue it to her, to your lordship, and the pretty lady, 
your lordship's daughter, with all the rest of our 
relations and friends, is the daily prayer of, 

" My most dear lord, 

" Your lordship's most affectionate 

" Humble servant, 

" Chris. Windebanke." 

There was no end of these family begging letters. 
Neither Colonel Windebanke, nor the court physician, 
Dr. Windebanke, would be troubled with them, or do 
anything to assist their unprosperous brothers and 
sisters, so the dead weight of those insatiable beggars 
fell entirely on the bishop. Even after his depri- 
vation, his uncles Christopher and Francis Win- 
debanke continued to importune him with their 
begging letters, and to acknowledge his charitable 
benefactions in reply. 

His widowed mother and motherless daughter con- 



190 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

tinued to reside with Francis Turner at the palace 
at Ely as long as it continued to be his home. 

The following interesting particulars of both are 
thus communicated to the bishop, during his absence 
in London, by a female relation who was staying at 
the palace at Ely with Mrs. Turner. It must be 
remembered that " Poor Miss/' as she calls Margaret 
Turner, could not have been older than nine years 
at the time when worthy Mrs. Grigg appears so ap- 
prehensive that her good manners should be marred 
by her three boisterous cousins. 

"My Loed,* 

" Had not Mr. Archdeacon and Mr. Koj)er been 
exact in giving your lordship an account of all that 
could have justified my taking the liberty to write, I 
should not have permitted myself to have been silent ; 
though I confess it would have pained me to dis- 
turb your lordship's peace with the ill news of Mrs. 
Turner's indisposition, whose heart bears up bravely 
under what creates fears in all about her, who must 
needs be sensible how great a loss it will be when 
God re-demands her. The hopes she has of seeing 
your lordship next Monday revives her, and indeed 
all at Ely House. Poor Miss has a great cold, but 
it no ways disturbs her play. I tell her she has dis- 
carded all discipline but what comes from Martin ; 
and that she had spent her time better in educating 
her dear lord's ducks, than she has done these two 
months under the government of her three cousins, 

* Kawlinson MSS., letter 98. 



TURNER, BISnOP OF ELY. 191 

who are pretty children, but most unsuitable com- 
panions for a brisk virgin whose wit and growth 
make it higli time to guard her from ill impres- 
sions. Her tender-hearted grandmother is so sensible 
of the injury her late diversions have done her, that 
I dare say she will choose to have her darling at 
Eichmond next year if the same sparks return to 
Holborn, where I own I have done penance, finding 
it impossible to signify anything to a child I sincerely 
wish as well to as to my own soul, and for her sake 
long to be gone." 

In her postscript, Mrs, Grrigg observes : — 
" The Papists loudly proclaim my lord of Ely a 
seditious preacher. God Almighty protect his lord- 
ship and all that are like him." 

During his prosperity Turner exercised unbounded 
charity in almsgiving, and rendered liberal and 
effective service to the French refugees. He estab- 
lished a church and ministry for them at Thorney 
Abbey, enabling them to exercise their own worship 
without conforming to the liturgy of the Church of 
England. Not withstanding this great liberality, the 
report was circulated that he intended to force con- 
formity to the Church of England upon them. " No," 
replied the bishop, "I never mean to thrust our 
prayers upon them, or our orders on their ministers, 
against their wills." 

He had visited their settlement at Thorney Abbey, 
and conferred with Monsieur Le Pla, their leading 
man in that district, about the appointment of a 
learned minister from among themselves, who would 



192 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

not oppose the Church of England, especially as 
many of them had, since their arrival in England, 
received ordination at their own solicitation, from the 
Bishop of London and himself. 

" M. Le Pla," writes Turner to a clergyman in his 
diocese, near Thorney Abbey, " assured me I should 
be very well satisfied in the person, which surprised 
me the more to hear of one fixed there almost a 
"year before I had the least account of him, and at 
last to see him in a grey coat." 

On the whole, Turner, notwithstanding his mild- 
ness and apostolic conciliation, found this foreign im- 
portation of Lutheran and Calvinistic sectarians a 
queer and somewhat troublesome charge in his dio- 
cese, especially as stormy times for the Church were 
at hand. After mentioning the sensible behaviour of 
the French ministers recently ordained by himself, 
Turner says, a They have voluntarily proceeded to 
officiate to congregations where the Common Prayer 
Book had never been so much as heard of; but he 
will not importune, nor so much as invite the French 
minister, to whom he had just been introduced at 
Thorney Abbey, to follow their worthy example. 
They," continues he, "understand our Church and 
themselves. Since this gentleman is unwilling, I 
shall not be forward to press him, nor easy to admit 
him to orders, since he is so indifferent. But, as 
they never consulted me before they settled him, so I 
hope they will give themselves and me no further 
trouble in the matter. They have a man in whom 
they are satisfied, and, whether I am or not, they 
reck not, and, I suppose, will not much concern 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 193 

themselves, as long as I am no way uneasy to them, 
which, if I could, yet I would not be." 

Though Francis Turner ow r ed nearly all his pre- 
ferments to the generous friendship of his royal 
master, King James, when Duke of York, to whom 
he was personally attached, he steadily opposed the 
unconstitutional proceedings of that monarch after 
the suppression of Monmouth's rebellion. Neverthe- 
less, James, presuming on their former intimacy, 
made some attempts to tamper with him after he 
and the other six bishops were released from the 
Tower, before then- trial. 

Turner was, however, firm and uncompromising, 
and no less earnest in his resistance than Sancroft 
and the others ; yet, when the king was driven from 
the realm, he deeply regretted that matters had been 
pushed so far. He testified the greatest concern 
for his calamities, and was deeply moved on reading 
the letter the fugitive monarch left on the table at 
Rochester, stating the reasons which impelled him to 
leave England. 

From that moment Francis Turner laboured to 
effect a counter-revolution. There was great diver- 
sity of feeling among the hierarchy on that point. 
Turner thus expresses himself in a confidential letter 
to Sancroft, January 11, 1689 : — 

" We came home from Lambeth four bishops in 
my coach, and we could not but deplore our case 
that we should disagree in anything, and such a thing 
as the world must needs observe. But their observing 
this, and insulting thereupon, makes it necessary for 
us in our own vindication to find out something on 

o 



194 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

which we can agree." He goes on to tell the arch- 
bishop that there is to be a meeting that afternoon 
at Ely House of the most considerable clergymen, to 
deliberate what was to be done at that crisis, and to 
listen to Dr. Burnet's arguments on the forfeiture. 
"I enclose to your grace/' he says in conclusion, 
" another paper which ought to be kept very private, 
but may be published one day, to show that we have 
not been wanting faithfully to serve a hard master 
in his extremity." He proved the sincerity of his 
professions at the expense of his fortunes, by refusing 
to transfer his allegiance to William. 

On the arrival of the Princess of Orange, Turner 
told her uncle, the Earl of Clarendon, " that he and 
some others of the bishops who disapproved the change 
intended to go out of town, that they might be found 
at theiQptations." 

Dr. E&yd, Bishop of St. Asaph, visited him before 
he left Hatton Garden, to learn all he could, and do 
his best to influence him to the cause of the new 
king and queen. Dr. Erancis Turner replied, " that 
he would never take an oath to any monarch during 
the life of James II." When St. Asaph urged the 
question of what he would do if King James were 
dead? "It is possible," replied Francis Turner, "I 
might take the oath to his successor." Evidently I 
meaning to his son. 

" On the last day of 1689 the Bishop of Ely was 
with me," says Henry Lord Clarendon, "and told 
me that a few days since the Bishops of London and 
St. Asaph had been with my lord of Canterbury, 
pressing to know what he and the rest could do 



195 

to prevent "himself and the others being deprived. 
Could they make no steps towards the government?" 
To which Ely and Norwich replied, " We can do 
nothing. If the king thinks fit, for his own sake " 
(here he evidently meant King James), " that we 
should not be deprived, he must make it his business 
to devise expedients. We cannot vary from what we 
have done." 

In the meantime the juring bishops frequently 
met their nonjuring brethren at Lord Clarendon's 
hospitable board, and discussed the state of public 
affairs. Dr. Tenison owned one day that there had 
been irregularities in the settlement of the govern- 
ment ; that it were to be wished it had been other- 
wise, but we were now to make the best of it for fear 
of worse. The Bishop of St. Asaph said " it was 
known while things were in debate he had voted 
against abdication and for a regency, but now things 
being as they are, and the Prince of Orange crowned 
king, he looked upon acquisition to be just right." 
Upon which Clarendon interposed with great heat, 
saying, " If you preach such doctrine it must not be 
to me." Words getting high the Bishop of Ely in- 
terposed, and made them change the subject. 
I In order to preserve his aged mother and his 
^beloved child from the excitement and clanger to 
which a continued residence at his episcopal palace 
at Ely might possibly expose them, Turner removed 
these helpless but precious objects of his tender 
affection from that beloved abode to a less distin- 
guished residence till the revolutionary crisis should 
be over. 



196 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Margaret, then just turned of eleven, was permitted 
to accept an invitation from friends of her father, 
Dr. and Mrs. Blomer, to stay with them at Bexley, 
in Kent. The following pretty, unaffected letter, 
addressed by her to her grandmother, will doubtless 
be read with pleasure. 

April 15th, 1689. 
" Most dear Grandmother, 

" I hope you will pardon my not writing sooner. 
It is a duty I confess should have been paid long 
since, but my being unable to express myself so well 
as I wish, makes me slow in writing letters ; but I 
beg you, dear grandmother, to believe that I will 
endeavour so to improve my understanding, that you 
may with more pleasure receive the acknowledgments 
I am sure are due to you from me. I hope this fine 
sunshine will last, that so we may reasonably hope 
to see you and my dear father speedily. 

" I beg both your blessings and your prayers that I 
may not fail to live as becomes a Christian, and 

" Your most obedient granddaughter, 

" Margaret Turner. 

" Dr. Blomer and Mrs. Blomer present you their 
service; they are very kind to me, and I cannot 
forbear saying that Bexley is a sweet quiet place. 

" Indorsed. — For Miss Turners most 
dear Grandmother — These." 

Turner was heard occasionally to express passionate 
regret that he and his six episcopal coadjutors had 
carried their resistance to King James so far, and 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 197 

had not entered into recognisances for each other, 
instead of provoking that misguided prince to send 
them to the Tower. 

Notwithstanding his uneasiness at the state of eccle- 
siastical affairs and his personal insecurity at this un- 
settled period, we find Turner continued to add to his 
already large library ; for a literary friend, J. Moord, 
whom he had commissioned to purchase books for him 
at an auction, gives the following account of the suc- 
cessful manner in which he had executed a commis- 
sion for him. 

u The other day I was at the auction-house, where I 
found ' Lilius ' and ' Gyraldus,' and bought for you, 
the first at 30s. and the other at 13s. 6d., both very 
reasonable rates, and the ' Lilius ' fairly bound and gilt 
on the back, in two volumes, the other fair, but not so 
well bound, and have given order that they shall be 
sent to Oxford on Thursdav next." * 

Then follows a very interesting notice of the deaA 
of Viscount Dundee, with particulars not generally 
known. " Dundee, as we have the story, died bravely. 
He charged through Mackay's troops, and through 
them back again, in which last charge he received a 
mortal wound by a bullet in his thigh ; this he 
concealed, and commanded the next officer to pursue 
the victory, while he went a little aside ; but as soon 
as he was out of sight he lay down, in a cloak hehad 
commanded his man to spread, and died in less than 
half a quarter of an hour, charging him to conceal his 
death till the day was over and the victory complete." 

* Letter from J. Moord to Turner, Aug. 13, 1689, Rawlinson 
MSS., Bodleian Library. 



198 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

The new sovereigns had observed with uneasiness the 
absence of the Bishop of Ely from their coronation, 
and the unconcealed attitude of loyalty he had 
assumed towards King James. William departed 
for Ireland, and Mary caused the oath of allegiance 
to her consort and herself to be tendered to Turner 
and the other nonjuring bishops, on the 1st of 
August. It was unhesitatingly rejected by Turner, 
and his suspension from his episcopate followed as a 
iftatter of course. 

Then the bishops of London and St. Asaph were 
commissioned to tell him and the other nonjuring 
bishops, that if they would only remain quiescent, 
their Majesties, King William and Queen Mary, 
would not proceed to extremities with them, but, 
refraining from appointing successors to supersede 
them in their sees, would leave them in quiet pos- 
session of their revenue, and dignities ; but they 
took no notice of this conciliatory intimation. 
Sentence of deprivation followed in consequence, on 
the 1st of February, 1690. Turner boldly protested 
against the validity of this sentence in the market- 
place of Ely, and courageously continued to preach 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 190 

in his robes every Sunday, in the chapel of Ely House, 
llatton Garden. His ministry was attended by 
thronging crowds, among whom the queen's uncle, 
the Earl of Clarendon, always appeared in a con- 
spicuous place. 

In the absence of King William, Queen Mary 
thought it more prudent, instead of taking active 
measures, to send Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, to tell 
Turner privately, "that their Majesties having been 
informed of the great resort of people to his chapel, 
were highly displeased, and he advised him therefore, 
as a friend, to shut it up for the time to come." 

The deprived bishop did not submit till a second 
intimation of the peril he was incurring by his con- 
tumacity. 

" On Tuesday, February 11th," notes the Earl of 
Clarendon in his diary, "the Bishop of Ely dined 
with me. He told me that 'the Bishop of St. As^ph 
had been with him again, and told him plainly he 
must let no more company come to his chapel ;' so 
that I perceive all people are to have liberty of con- 
science, but those of the true Church of England." 

The queen next assumed a threatening attitude, 
and although he was her uncle, proceeded to arrest 
the Earl of Clarendon, the ostensible friend and 
comforter of the nonjuring bishops, committed him 
to a prison-lodging in the Tower, and ordered his 
door to be padlocked. 

Francis Turner fearlessly came to visit his in- 
carcerated friend on the 18th of July, but was only 
permitted to see him in the presence of a warder. 
He came again on the 21st and 25th, but was told 



200 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

that the queen had expressly forbidden his access to 
the noble prisoner, and he was never again admitted. 
Instead of becoming more cautious in his demeanour 
after this warning, Turner's impulsive proceedings 
often caused uneasiness to the more prudent among 
his deprived brethren, in evidence of which is the 
following passage in a letter from Frampton, Bishop 
of Gloucester, to Thomas Turner. 

" To your good brother, if you can send it without 
peril to yourself, my hearty and kind respects, as he 
sent to me from my lord of Norwich. I was offended 
with his letter into France in all our names as well 
as his own, because I thought it was most rash and 
unjustifiable; but I have digested it long ago, and 
now am as perfectly his as he can be mine." 

By the loss of the bishopric of Ely, Turner was 
delivered from the harassing turmoil of a weary law- 
suit that had been going on ever since the days of 
Queen Elizabeth, between the Hatton family and the 
bishops of Ely, for the valuable demesne of Hatton 
Garden and Hatton House. Cox, Bishop of Ely, 
having been compelled, in the twentieth year of that 
sovereign, to grant a lease to her then favourite, Sir 
Christopher Hatton, of the spacious London palace of 
the diocese of Ely, with the garden, which was four 
hundred feet long and almost as many broad, and 
fourteen acres of pasture at the end thereof, at almost 
a nominal rent for the term of twenty-one years. 
Not content with this, Sir Christopher told the queen 
that he had laid out 19,905?. in repairing the house, 
and he feared he should lose the money unless the 
bishop or his successors were compelled to pay or bind 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 201 

themselves to pay that sum. Whereupon the queen 
wrote to Cox, " that he should make the premises 
over to her until he or his successors had paid the 
money claimed by the tenant, and whatever he should 
please lay out on the estate." 

Besistance was long made to this illegal claim and 
tyrannical behest. At last it was conceded; but 
Hatton being indebted to the crown in the sum of 
40,000Z. at the time of his death, for his deficits as 
receiver of the rents of Fee Farm, the queen seized 
the episcopal mansion and estate in Holborn belong- 
ing to the diocese of Ely, and sold it for 7000Z. to 
Lady Elizabeth Hatton, the niece of her great minis- 
ter, Burleigh. 

The succeeding bishops of Ely vainly endeavoured 
to obtain restitution of this valuable estate. At last 
it was decided that the Hatton family should pay 
somewhat by way of compensation. Turner's suc- 
cessor, Bishop Patrick, agreed to submit to the award 
of Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury, Halifax, and 
others, including Lord Nottingham himself, the father- 
in-law of the then Lady Hatton, namely, for her to 
keep the disputed episcopal property, on paying a 
hundred a year and giving the site for a new church 
— terms which had been refused by Turner with con- 
dign contempt. 

A formidable plot against the government and life 
of the Dutch king was discovered next, in which the 
complicity of the deprived Bishop of Ely was asserted 
on the credit of two letters which were found among 
Lord Preston's papers, when he and Mr. Ashton were 
arrested, addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Bedding, sup- 



202 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

posed to be intended for the deposed sovereign, king 
Jaines, and his queen. 

The crown lawyers strove to prove that not only 
Turner, but all the nonjuring bishops were impli- 
cated in the design of restoring the deposed sovereign 
and his family, from the following expressions in the 
letters, attributed to the deprived prelate : — 

" I speak in the plural, because I write my elder 
brother's sentiments as well as my own and the rest 
of the family ; though lessened in number, yet if we 
are not mightily out in our accounts, we are growing 
in our interest that is in Jesus." 

In the other letter much the same is repeated. 
That these letters were written by Turner there was 
not the slightest proof ; but they furnished a pretext 
for issuing a proclamation for his apprehension, 
together with that of William Penn. Both were so 
fortunate as to escape. Burnet observes " that the 
discovery of this correspondence gave the king a 
great advantage in filling the vacant sees." This is 
speaking plainly enough. 

The plot was discovered in December. The trials 
of Lord Preston, Mr. Ashton, and Sir John Friend 
came on, and they were all condemned to die. Pres- 
ton purchased his life by betraying his associates; 
the others perished on the scaffold. The brave Earl 
of Dartmouth died in the Tower. Clarendon, against 
whom, as the queen's uncle, it was not considered 
decent to push the charge of high treason to the 
death, was released. 

When adverting to the dangerous predicament in 
which his friend, the Bishop of Ely, stood at the time 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 203 

the proclamation was issued, Sancroft observes " that 
it would be wonderful, considering my lord of El) 7 's 
very remarkable appearance, if he escaped." Francis 
Turner was singularly handsome, of a commanding 
height, withi a finely formed Roman nose, lofty and 
expansive forehead, expressive dark eyebrows and 
eyes, black hair, and a clear complexion. Notwith- 
standing these personal peculiarities, the deprived 
bishop obtained a safe retreat from the peril with 
which he was threatened. 

He expresses his solicitude for his aged mother 
and beloved daughter, at this anxious time, in a most 
interesting letter to his brother, Thomas Turner, the 
President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, dated 
January 18th, 1690-1 :— 

" Do your utmost to keep up my mother's spirits, 
which I hope will never droop, and then I com- 
fort myself in some confidence of seeing her again. 
For my part, I am vigorously in health, and sanguine 
in my expectations of better times. Commend 
me, with abundance of love, to my dearest daughter, 
and tell her that I assure myself God will bless 
her the better for her father's calamity, if we both 
do but bear it as Christianly as we ought. 

" God Almighty be most gracious to you all. If 
you once hear that I am forced to fly, pray write to 
Tom Newcome about the sale to you, and direct him 
to advise very privately with your useful friend and 
mine, Mr. Gilbert, to make a deed valid in law." 

The brother of the deprived bishop was then in 
treaty for the purchase of the reversion of the es- 
tate in which their widowed mother was jointured, 



204 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

that being the property of Francis Turner after her 
death. 

The next day the following letter was addressed by 
the fugitive bishop to his uncle, Colonel Windebanke, 
a person high in the favour of the reigning sove- 
reigns, and deep in their confidence : — 

" Monday Night, Jan. 19th, 1690. 

" Most deae Uncle, 

" The last thing I do in this world, or at least 
in this part of the world, is to take my leave of you 
by this hasty letter. It is not possible for me to see 
you, and if it were, it would not be convenient for 
either of us. But I have ordered the matter so as 
this shall not be delivered nor sent you for three or 
four days, and if by that time you hear of no great 
inconvenience befallen me, you may conclude me 
arrived at a place of safety, or at least gotten far 
enough out of harm's way. 

"I give you this trouble (which I hope can never 
bring you the least danger) because you are the 
fittest, and indeed, the only friend I can rely upon 
to administer comfort to your good aged sister, 
my mother, which I entreat you to do by letter 
to my dear brother, the president ; for while I lie 
under such prejudices as I do, it will be some 
consolation to persons so much concerned for me 
that I am far enough off, and mighty secure 
under God's holy protection. I desire my friends 
will believe that I am not fled for any fear I had 
of a speedy, fair, open trial, but of a close, expen- 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 205 

sive, odious imprisonment, which would almost cer- 
tainly have overthrown my crazy, weak constitution 
(which nobody knows better than you do). I dreaded 
not any sentence of condemnation, which, from the 
justice of the government, I had no reason to appre- 
hend. 

" When you go to Whitehall prayers (as you used 
to do), commend me with my best respects to my 
good lord Bishop of St. Asaph. I assure myself he 
is still my friend, because I am certain I am his as 
much as ever, and that I was always very truly and 
kindly. I need not entreat his good offices and his 
prayers ; I know I have both, as he never wanted 
mine when he needed them. 

"Tell him for anybody now to pursue me with 
greater hardships, as marks of infamy, forfeitures, 
&c, would be next to carrying enmity into the other 
world ; for I am not likely to be farther engaged 
with this, unless it should please God to restore me 
in more settled times. His will be done by me and 
upon me. 

" When I am where I would be (if it be God's 
good pleasure to preserve me), I will give you a 
better account, and I hope to do it speedily, for the 
way I go is open enough at this time, and I am' 
under good conduct. I must entreat it, and expect 
it from your favour and friendship, that you will not 
suffer this letter of mine to go out of your hands 
(unless you send it to Oxford, which is best of all), 
nor let any copy be taken of it ; for though I care not 
who knows I am now out of reach (so that of that 
you need make no mystery nor secret), yet I am 



206 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

advised, for many reasons, to leave the rest to conjec- 
ture, and give no aim against myself. And so, most 
dear sir, a long farewell to you. God Almighty be 
your exceeding great reward for all the tenderness 
you have always had for me. May it please Him to 
support and strengthen you too, who have felt your 
share of afflictions, and to bless all yours, and may 
He, who is the Father of the Fatherless, be gracious 
to all mine, and more than supply to them the want 
of me. Once more adieu. 

a Most dear sir, 
" I am your most affectionate nephew, and 
" Much obliged humble servant, 
" Fran. Ex-Elien. 

" Impart this (I pray) to Tom Newcome (who 
knows nothing of me), that he, as my steward, may 
pay what I owe, which is little." 

His next letter to his uncle is peculiarly interest- 
ing, and is only dated one week later than the pre- 
ceding. He says : — 

« Most dear Sir, 

" I pray beat down any report may be raised 
of my being gone into France (which is false). 

"I will take it for granted that a letter which I 
left for you, of January 19th, was received ; in that I 
promised a further account of myself when I was 
there where I would be. And I take the first oppor- 
tunity to tell you I am now past the pikes, and in 
no danger neither of falling into any of the dikes • 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 207 

a word is enough to the wise. I avoid writing 
more plainly, lest this should fall into any disin- 
genuous hands ; for could any legal proof be made of 
my being out of the kingdom, some laws, which else 
may sleep long enough, may be waked and let loose 
upon me. I make no matter of it that it should be 
known to all that I am marched off, but that none 
should be able to convict me of it. For this, and 
many other reasons (as because kings have long 
hands), I neither yet tell the way I am gone nor the 
place whither I am going ; only this much. For the 
little time that I was abroad heretofore, the air of a 
German toivn agreed with me far better than that of 
France. Where I shall fix or settle is somewhat 
uncertain ; but if it please God to give me my own 
choice, it will be where I may hope to live cheapest 
and most incognito ; to have least to do with the 
world, and most freedom of access to a library, or at 
least to a few books, but those the best. Hitherto 
the companion of my flight has been Homer's 
Odysses ; where the story of Ulysses being known at 
his return, not to his son, but his old dog, set me 
a-smilino- and a-thinkins" whether mv daughter or her 
donne would be the likelier to know me, as I am 
transformed. All my trouble is that I must not yet 
expect to hear from any of ray friends, because I 
cannot assign any place where their letters might way- 
lay me. I heartily pray for their healths and yours, 
and let me beg of you, sir, now to lay out your 
thoughts solicitously for the preservation of your 
good sister's life, that I may see her face with joy 
once more in this world (if it be God's heavenly will). 



208 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

" When you meet my good lord of St. Asaph, be 
pleased to give him my hearty respects and services. 
Impart as much of this letter to him as you think 
proper ; all of it, without any reserve, if you find him 
as I left him, my kind friend. (On second thoughts 
pray do not show it as anything of my writing.) And 
then do me the favour to transmit (nor let any but 
our friends at Oxford read it) this, for the satisfaction 
of my friends at Oxford, to Corpus Christi. But not 
by the post. Tom Neweome can send it safe, and 
pray let him have this enclosed. I think not fit at 
present to write to any of my other relations. These 
few lines may assure them and you, sir, to ease all 
your solicitude, that through the tender mercy of God 
I enjoy a constant vigorous health of body, and a 
quiet contented mind, and shall do so by the grace 
of God as long as He of His goodness, whatever He 
lays upon me, enables me to bear it. I neither want, 
nor am like to want anything, but the company of 
my best friends, and yet I am not even now unac- 
companied, and I have the world before me, as Mr. 
Milton says our first parents had when they were 
driven from Paradise. 

"Bemember me, pray, with all kindness to all that 
were ever mine, and to all yours. I am yours most 
affectionately." 

Turner's next letter is to his faithful man of busi- 
ness, whom he always addresses as Honest Tom. 

" Honest Tom, 

" I trust in God you received mine of 
January 26, the only letter I have writ to you. 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 209 

was to assure you that I was got into a secure har- 
bour, though to go a great deal further." 

The fugitive prelate proceeds to communicate the 
following interesting particulars of himself. 

"I am in my winter quarters, though not there 
whither I told you in my last I designed ; for the 
weather proving very hard, with a kind of second 
winter, and finding a very good reception from an 
honest family of my own country and my own re- 
ligion, I resolved to lie still some weeks (or months 
perhaps) to expect the spring and better days, and 
to refresh myself; I do not say to recover myself, 
for my finger has never ached, much less my heart, 
since I saw you. I live in hopes of seeing you all 
again, but that as God pleases. 

" You'll not wonder if I do not name the place 
from whence I write this, for fear of a miscarriage 
by sending the bearer, for I pass here by another 
name, and it would be mischievous, perhaps, if my 
quality were known in the place where I am, and I 
might be pursued hither with ill offices, at least from 
my own countrymen ; where, as I am now', I'm much 
at ease, and can live cheap, for I keep no servant, 
and at present need none, those of the family being 
very ready to do all the little services for me." 

He makes the following sensible reflection on the 
propriety of his beloved daughter conforming her 
habits and personal expenses to the present change 
in her fortunes : — 

" By the way, since I am my own valet de chambre, 
I leave it to my good mother whether it will be 
decent for my daughter to have a servant to wait 

p 



210 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

upon her when her father has none ; especially when 
there are enow in the family to dress her, and more 
especially since herself, without an attendant, will 
be charge enough to her grandmother and uncle till 
I am in condition to reckon with them. But my 
great consideration," he impressively adds, " is for 
the good of my child, who ought to learn how to 
want as how to abound." - 

The deprived bishop, does not disdain to take into 
consideration the welfare of the faithful attendant 
whom he thinks it proper, from economical motives, 
to dismiss from his daughter's service. " I hope," 
he says, "Mrs. Cliff may be easily recommended to 
some other service. I'm only sorry she did not dis- 
pose of herself heretofore, as I was abler to have 
done better by her. All I can do for her now is (if 
she goes, and sure 'tis necessary she should) to assign 
her five pounds by you, and to promise her (if it ever 
please God to restore me) to give her more." 

He enters at large on the necessity of disposing of 
his landed property, to preserve it from forfeiture, 
and promises, " when the sums at which it is valued 
shall have been realized, he will tell him where the 
sum of 500/. in old gold has been deposited in the 
hands of a friend, with whom he left it for security on 
his hasty flight, taking only a few guineas with him 
for present use." 

" These sums put together," he says, " will amount 
at least to 2000?., which, by the advice of Mr. Gilbert, 
I desire to place abroad at five per cent, at least, for 
I would be loth, for my poor dear child's sake, to go 
deeper than needs be into the main stock." 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY, 211 

" As for the goods at Ely, and Ely House," con- 
tinues he, "it were best they were all, except the 
lumber, removed and sold outright, saving the 
wrought bed and plate, and whatever my mother 
desires to have saved. Speed, and all possible 
privacy, are necessary in their removal, and I urge 
their sale, not only for fear of a seizure, but lest the 
next episcopal usurper should press upon the goods 
and household stuff for dilapidations. I shall not be 
so civil to account with such a successor on such a 
score, and yet I will be just to the bishopric." 

He naturally desires his friend to ascertain whether 
there have been any steps taken towards forfeiture or 
outlawry in his case. "They talked," observes he, 
"of a proclamation coming out for me. If there be 
any such thing, we shall find it in the foreign 
'Gazette,' where they box me about bravely, and I 
as securelv lau^h at them." 

He next refers to matters of peculiar interest to 
him as an author and a scholar. 

"My heart," continues he, "though it be not 
heavy, would be much lighter if I knew all my books 
and papers were well disposed of and secured by that 
worthy friend of mine own I desired to undertake it. 
I would be glad too, and very glad, to* be sure my 
divinity notes and paper-books (I do not mean as yet 
to have those boxes sent me which are of Cranmer's 
transcribing, but those in my own hand) which are 
in one of the great library boxes, to which you have 
a key, were sent superscribed to the linen merchant. 
When they be there he will take his time, and that 
way they'll come the safest, though, perhaps, not the 



212 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

soonest. My linen friend knows where I would have 
the boxes of linen and paper-books to meet me in due 
time. But as for letters and money, let those come 
a shorter cut." 

A somewhat mystified direction, through what 
channel his correspondent was to send to him, fol- 
lows, and then he shrewdly adds, " As for yourself, 
'tis best you should know no more, lest you be ques- 
tioned." In conclusion, he expresses solicitude for 
" the poor condemned lord," meaning Preston, being 
unconscious of the base means to which that un- 
happy man had resorted for the preservation of his 
life. 

Bishop Turner remained not long in his hiding- 
place, but stole over to Banstead Downs, where his 
next letter to his brother is dated. 

Ban*, July 22nd, 1690. 
"Most deak Sir, 

" Yours of the 17th, a pregnant letter, came to 
me late yesternight. I shall transmit Dr. W.'s to 
his countryman, together with these from you. I 
had our own printed papers from London, and send 
you a parcel of them, though I take it for granted 
. you have seen them already ; they may serve to make 
this a packet. What effects they will have, or have 
had, I can hardly tell at this distance. I am informed 
tnat some persons are rather incensed by this means, 
because (by God's mercy) disappointed ; but that 
the generality were appeased before our vindication 
appeared. They said, with some sense of humanity, 
* The " stead " is erased in the MS. 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 213 

'that devilish charge must needs be a damnable 
forgery/ though all moral industry was used to make 
the rabble credit it, among whom it was distributed 
gratis, being first abbreviated into half a sheet, and 
tickets dispersed to set the time and place for Mr. 
Multitude to meet and perform the execution. 
Blessed be God who hath delivered, and doth deliver, 
in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us, 

" I had special leave, at the request of my brethren, 
to step for a day or two to Lambeth, to consult and 
concur with them in this exigency. They made them- 
selves cheerful with me in the midst of this dreadful 
calamity, to see how fat and fresh a man may look that 
has Banstead Downs for his prison, whither I returned 
next day, and never once crossed the water to Ely 
House. I can be nowhere better or easier than I am 
here, praised be God, who supports me in the day of 
my distress, so as nothing does greatly disturb me. 

" I heartily wish I could give you as comfortable 
an account of my friend and brother of Bath and 
Wells as I can of myself. I sent yesterday to see 
him, but can hear of no amendment. The doctors 
bleed him often ; my lord's grace apprehends they do 
it too frequently. He would fain get hither again, if 
he could recover but any tolerable health: may it 
please God, in whose tender mercy he trusts, not to 
add sorrow to our sorrow. 

" I shall not fail your kind expectations of hearing 
weekly from me ; but be mighty careful what any of 
you write to me ; let nothing reflecting or complaining 
come, though never so securely, for all the snares 
of death compass me. A word is enough to the wise. 



214 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

" Now I suppose the time of your journey to the 
place of your residence is at hand ; upon which I have 
something to say to you, which I have long thought 
on, and it is this. I understand your resolution to 
protest against the new election (which sure is not 
far off) ; but I do earnestly dissuade you from doing 
any such thing. It will do me no good, and you 
the greatest mischief. It will be thought but the 
partial affection of a brother, and be a little for your 
credit, but not at all for my honour or the good of 
the Church, that not one clergyman in my diocese, 
besides my own nearest relation, should make such 
a stand. Most of them lately very kindly, without 
my knowledge, petitioned for my restoring ; but I 
have reason to expect the same men would present 
an Address of Abhorrence, if I myself should protest 
my right in opposition to a conge $ elire. I shall 
take another course in due time, by the help of God, 
and a more effectual. Meanwhile, if I have any 
authority, either as your bishop or your brother, I 
must employ it with you to prevent your undoing 
yourself to no great purpose. God forbid you should 
concur, or any way countenance such proceedings. 
Be absent at your choice, and as stiff in the knees 
afterwards as you please. 

" All this advice comes not only from me, and has 
been well considered. Pray show Mrs. Grigg all this, 
because it answers a passage in her last to me, that 
you were resolved to jail with me. For the rest of her 
very friendly Christian letter, the next I send shall be 
one of thanks to her. Meantime, give her my hearty 
respects, and to my good mother much duty and 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. ^15 

services. My blessing on the poor child, now a per- 
fect orphan, but that you are a father to her. I am, 

" Most dear brother, 

" Your most affectionate 

"Brother in Christ. * 

" I hear great offence is taken at our subscribing 
episcopally to our paper." 

Turner's next letter is to his man of business, from 
which we learn that he and William Penn were, for 
a while, companions at hide and seek. 

" Honest Tom, 

" My last to you, dated the 8th of this month, 
gave you some hint that I was a little indisposed, 
but it was only for want of blood-letting in the 
Spring ; and now I have done it, I thank God I have 
recovered perfect good temper, and live in hopes of 
letters from you, full charged, from Oxford. My great 
solicitude is still for Mr. Price's master, though yours 
to me speaks comfortably ; pray carry him or send him 
my sincerest best wishes and services, and whenever 
you intend me a letter, first see Mr. Price, and in- 
form yourself how matters stand. As for my friend, 
his fellow-sufferer, it grieves me to hear how he loses 
himself, dreaming to drink away sorrow. There are 
two other gentlemen, with whom I was joined for a 
third (to my great honour, so I count their re- 
proaches). The two I mean are William Penn and 
James Graham. If you can learn what is become of 

* Signature erased in MS. 



216 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

them, and whether or no, the former, especially, 
has offered any bail, or be still under hatches, I 
should the better know what to expect myself, though 
I look for nothing but hardships ; the best is, I am 
out of their clutches. 

" I do not now write to my brother, for I know 
not where he is ; I suppose keeping his residence ; 
nor do I write again to Oxford, because I assure 
myself their answers are coming towards me. If 
my brother be in the Fens, then when you have 
read this send it to Oxford, safe to my mother, with 
all my duty to her, and all kindness to all that are 
hers and mine there. My brother being at my house, 
may take order about removing the best goods and 
selling the lumber. I am never like to use them, 
and believe that the danger of seizing is not over. 

" I daily expect to hear of a successor, and then too 
late you may feel a seizure ; an order, at least, to stir 
nothing, and then all is lost. The pretence of dilapi- 
dations sweeps all like a Christmas-box. Whatever 
comes of that or any other oppression, I am resolved, 
by the help of God, to be very patient, and never give 
way to melancholy. I study not only to be contented, 
but cheerful, in a very low way of living. If I were in 
a condition to keep a servant where I am, I would 
have none but honest William ; and I have kept him 
hitherto in some hopes of my return to my station, 
but of that there is no prospect (though I have no 
despair of it in God's own time) ; but, in the mean 
time, he is out of business. Pray commend me to 
him, and allow him as you do, till he gets some good 
service or employment. Assure him, if I am ever so 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 217 

happy as to recover myself into tolerable condition, 
then, if it be to his advantage, I will not only take 
him again, but give him some place in recompense 
of his faithful services. 

" On second thoughts, you were best sell my chariot, 
else it will be spoilt, unless my good friends at Oxford 
have any use of it. If it will do them any service 
let them have it ; if not, get the most you can for it. 
I should be glad to be sure they had made even with 
you at Hanslop, and you must ply them at Sandhurst. 
I trust you receive the small interest from Mr. Griffin. 

" Farewell, and pray for 

u Yours, &c. 
"April 20, 1691. 

" My respects to all that remember me with any 
favour. Assure them that I (by God's mercy) was 
never in better health or in better heart." 

There can be no doubt that after Francis Turner's 
return to England he carried on a secret correspond- 
ence with the Court of St. Germains, and was deep in 
Sir John Fenwick's plot. While that bold Northum- 
brian baronet stood at bay, nearly hunted to the death, 
the government blood-hounds were keen on the scent 
of one Grascomb, a nonjuring clergyman, who had 
hitherto defied all their efforts in tracking his where- 
abouts. Although the most active of all the pam- 
phleteers who stirred up the fire of insurrection in 
those times, Grascomb walked invisible through all 
plots. At last he was ascertained to be in the house 
of a French silk-weaver, in Spitalfields. The king's 



218 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

messengers surrounded the house with an armed force 
then went in and captured a gentleman, who gave 
his name as Harris. He was, however, identified by 
several persons there as the deprived Bishop of Ely, 
Dr. Francis Turner. When he was questioned and 
asked to give an account of himself, the bishop said, 
very coolly, " that he had no other account to give, 
but that he came there to dine, for he did not live 
there, his lodgings were at Lincoln's Inn." 

When he found that the government officials 
meant to detain him, he wrote to Secretary Vernon 
(who details this odd adventure in his letter to the 
Duke of Shrewsbury) and demanded his freedom, 
alleging "that he held a pass to go to France if 
he chose, but he had made no attempt to avail 
himself of it." Secretary Vernon and the other 
state minister, Windebanke (to whom the bishop like- 
wise appealed), referred him to Sir William Trumbull. 
The oddity of the case was, that the Bishop of Ely 
knew as well as they did that the prime minister, 
Shrewsbury, w r as himself deep in plot, and was only 
watching the signs of the times to declare for King 
James II. The result was that Sir William Trum- 
bull set the dauntless clerical Jacobite at liberty. 

He retired to his lodgings in Lincoln's Inn, where 
he rested perdu, varying the monotony of seclusion 
by occasional visits to Moorpark, that fair oasis in 
the Southern Highlands of England, cultivated and 
improved by Sir William Temple. All the doings 
therein were completely isolated from the rest of the 
island, excepting the near town of Farnham, by the 
deep sands of the wild Surrey heaths. Here Francis 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 219 

Turner was received with great affection by that 
mysterious statesman, Sir William Temple. We can 
trace the Christian prelate's influence for good on the 
mind of Temple's protege, Jonathan Swift. His 
noble ode to Truth, written in memory of Saneroft, 
is endorsed as composed at the request of Dr. Turner, 
Bishop of Ely. 

Turner's next abode was with his aged mother, 
near Bedford Row r , as we learn from a quaint letter to 
his brother, in which it appears that he was again re- 
united to his dearly -loved daughter. His care about 
the household goods Honest Tom had removed from 
the palace at Ely is amusing. 

" Most deak Sir, 

"I salute you from my little new habitation, 
where I have lodged these two nights, but it will be 
two or three weeks ere we get into any settled condi- 
tion. I think you were best superscribe to James, at 
Mrs. Turners house, two doors beyond the sign of the 
1 wo Brewers in Bedford Bounds, by Bedford Bow. 
This is prolix, but I cannot shorten it. I thank you 
for your last, and your promise to send up such of the 
goods as we need, viz., the least of the feather-beds, 
the best of the sarcenet quilts, the tiuo stained quilts, 
the grey curtains, all the blankets. As for the other 
feather-bed and the hangings, pray give them house- 
room and use them. 

" Jane cannot come at her note, nor hardly tell 
where it is mislaid. Yet she remembers several 
pairs of sheets for servants (four pairs she supposes), 
and these will be necessary. Your niece, as well as 



220 LIYES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

her father, is much concerned not to find her 
mother's pictures in miniature (except the crucifix) 
among all our things that are brought from Cam- 
bridge. Do me the kindness to inquire of the little 
gentlewoman (to whom I shall write my acknowledg- 
ments), and entreat her to recollect and help my 
aged memory, or rather your niece's forgetfulness, 
what is become of them, and where any of them 
were bestowed when taken down from hanging in 
your chamber at the old perch. Mr. Phipps wad 
very punctual in the payment of the five guineas, for 
which God reward you. Mr. Mason accepts your 
charity with all his blushing modesty, yet with equal 
gratitude. Your goddaughter presents her duty and 
services. We are of opinion, since the weather is 
open, the lumber may come time enough by water, 
but redouble your kindness by hastening these mat- 
ters up to us. If I have anything worth imparting 
it shall come toward you another way. 

"So, adieu." 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 221 



CHAPTER V. 

The venerable mother of Turner departed this life 
August, 1692, after a long illness. This event is 
mentioned to his brother Thomas in a quaint but 
affectionate letter from Cambridge, by an intimate 
friend, who only signs with a monogram. He says, 
" I heard last week from Mr Newcome the sad news 
of Madame Turner's death, which had been more sad, 
but at such a great age and so long a sickness it 
was not surprising. It is lamented by every one to 
whom I tell it here. Sure Heaven must be a strong 
place, and earth a very happy one, if half the world 
did but understand, and do their business as well as 
she did hers in all those several states of life unto 
which God was pleased to call her." 

The decease of his beloved and revered friend, the 
deprived Archbishop of Canterbury, is thus mentioned 
by Turner in a letter to his brother. 

" The death of that blessed man, the good Archbishop 
of Canterbury, I bewail with all my heart ; not for his 
sake, for he was full of years and ripe for Heaven 
(having left an admirable example to all the world), 
but for our own, who have need of such examples 
for the continuance of them among us had God been 
pleased. But blessed be His holy name in all things, 



222 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

who can supply our hard loss when He pleaseth, 
though we have no probability of it." * 

Turner amused himself in his hours of adversity 
by translating ' Prudentius ' from the Latin. He had 
originally recommended this task to Matthew Prior, 
when a student at St. John's College. The deprived 
bishop's beautiful paraphrase from the Latin, on the 
proneness of man to sin, was justly admired by his 
contemporaries, and though too long for insertion 
as a whole in this brief biography, it is impossible to 
refrain from the quotation of a few lines as a spe- 
cimen. After illustrating his subject with the me- 
taphors of the course of a polished ivory ball rolling 
down a steep slippery descent, the progress of a 
flaming brand among straw, the career of an un- 
bridled colt, and the rush of a swollen stream that 
has broken its bank, he thus sums up : — 

" Foolish man, these emblems suit 
You, or your frail flesh at least ; 
You, that live so like a brute, 

The rolling ball, the ranging beast, 
The untamed colt, the flaming straw, 
The foaming flood, that knows no law, 
" Describe the risks you run in sin, 
Your body does your soul betray, 
You've a great work to do within, 

Strike into the narrow way ! 
' Stop your vain course/ true wisdom cries, 
1 Or endless death will be your prize.' 
" Thou that with healing in tby wings, 

Blest Sun of Kighteousness ! didst rise ; 
All sovereign balms thy advent brings, 

Enough to cure the world of vice ; 
Souls once baptized and clear from stain, 
Let not the foul fiend soil' again." 



* Rawlinson MSS. 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 223 

The time and thoughts of the deprived bishop were 
unfortunately too much taken up with political sub- 
jects. His vigorous and fearless pen was the terror 
of the king, queen, bishops, peers, and senators of the 
Kevolution. He gives a very lively and graphic 
account, in a letter to his brother, of the formidable 
riots in London that took place in the spring after 
Queen Mary's death, in consequence of the perse- 
verance of the Dutch king in pressing seamen for 
his navy, and the abhorrence of the Londoners to 

that tyrannical imposition. 

* 

"April, 11th, 1695. 

" These two last nights," records Turner, " we have 
had terrible uproars, and an innumerable city mob 
pulling the pressed men out of the marshals' houses, 
and gutting two of their houses, and then burning 
them. It is reported they found several dead bodies 
there interred, in gardens or cellars, and divers of 
their prisoners in a dying condition for hunger, 
whom they released. This, true or false, exasperates 
strangely. Yesternight they burned the prison in 
Finsbury Fields, and set all free there. To-night 
they threaten to do as much at the Savoy. 

" All night we heard beating of drums, and all the 
trainbands were up, but no restraint to the torrent. 
My lord of Oxford's troops came down upon them, 
but a vast rabble got behind these and pelted them off 
their horses with showers of stones, till all the troops 
rode away as if every one had cried, ' the devil take 
the hindmost.' 

" A justice of peace, venturing among them in his 



224 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

coach, was drubbed and dragged. All the constables, 
with their watch, guarding those places, quitted their 
posts to the fury of the multitude. 

" They go about the streets exclaiming, ' the 
nation has been abused,' and ask ' why the Dutch 
troops do not come down? but they wisely kept in 
their quarters. They demand a general indemnity 
upon the queen's death. It is believed they have fur- 
nished themselves with as many cases of pistols and 
swords as they could buy up on the sudden. What 
will be done in the end of this ? This is ill-timed, 
and may produce great disturbances, it being just 
upon the king's going off for Flanders." * 

The deprived bishop removed himself and his 
daughter, in the year 1699, into a small house in 
the country. All his furniture from the episcopal 
palace at Ely had remained ever since his expul- 
sion under the care of his brother, the Principal of 
Corpus Christi, at Oxford. He playfully reproves his 
brother for having paid for a black bed which 
was missing. "Had I understood it," he says, "I 
should have refused your money for such a frippery. 
There is nothing in your custody we shall need in a 
wainscoted little house, where you shall always find 
. a lodging. For your inquiry after the mystery of 
the peace (of Eyswick), if there be any in it, and if 
secret articles be imagined touching our old master. 
King James, — on my conscience there are none, nor 
himself, nor any of his race or party in the least con- 
sidered." 

* Kawlinson MSS., Bodleian, Oxford. 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 225 

On another occasion the bishop says, in reference 
to the peace of Ryswick, " I have lately seen a very 
sensible letter from one of the family at St. Germains. 
It relates how much they are mortified that their 
master and mistress bear it decently and sedately ; 
that the king, upon too loud complaints of his ser- 
vants against the peacemaker, was fain to declare 
openly, that whoever railed (that was the word) 
against the French king should neither continue in 
his favour, nor at St. Germains ; that the little prince, 
when he read in the ' Gazette ' how the most Christian 
king owned King William, beat his brows and tore 
the ' Gazette ' in pieces ; that the generality of the 
French nation were amazed and ashamed of the 
peace, insomuch that their king too, publicly, as he 
was at dinner, perceived that his subjects were dis- 
pleased with the peace." 

Turner was very anxious about his daughter's 
health in the year 1698. She was very ill with 
small-pox, but the skill of his uncle, Dr. Windebanke, 
restored her. The bishop removed her for change of 
air to Bagshot, and as she was forbidden, on account 
of her eyes, to read or write, he watched over her, 
acted as her secretary, and read to her. 

The following letter, undated, to his brother, ap- 
pears to have been written at the crisis of her malady 
by the anxious father : — 

"Most dear Sir,* 

"If I could forget the promise I made this 

morning, that I would not fail you by this night's 

* Tattered letters and papers of Bishop Turner among the 
Rawlinson MSS. 

Q 



226 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

post, you have a little remembrancer who forgets 
her pains to put me in mind of it, so extreme kindly 
does she take your godfatherly care of her. I bless 
God our comforts increase by seeing this day well 
over ; and now she feels her sorrow grow upon her, 
as was to be expected, yet her patience does not 
lessen. She presents a great deal of duty, and thanks 
for your company too. In these acknowledgments I 
very heartily join, and hope this will find you safe 
at Oxford, whither I pray God I may send you no 
worse account by Saturday night's post. Meantime 
and ever, I am yours. 

" About nine on Thursday night" 

The deprived bishop was spared the anguish of 
weeping over the loss of his last and dearest earthly 
treasure. Margaret slowly recovered, but it was to 
experience the pang of learning the un worthiness of 
her affianced lover, the eldest son of the bishop's 
maternal uncle, Colonel Windebanke, to whom, with 
the consent of all their friends, she had been for 
some time engaged. 

The father and daughter were living at Leighton- 
stone, when a confidential letter from Colonel Winde- 
banke to the bishop, deploring the misconduct of his 
son, and expressing the bitterest indignation at the 
reckless course the unprincipled profligate was pur- 
suing, interrupted the peaceful tenor of their lives. 

Deeply shocked at the communication of the un- 
worthiness of his nephew, and the probable perils 
to which his Margaret might have been exposed by 
matrimonial union to one so unmeet to be her hus- 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 227 

band, the bishop tenderly broke the matter to her, 
and explained the painful circumstances that ren- 
dered it expedient to put an end to the engagement. 

Poignantly as poor Margaret felt the pang of 
severing the tie, she meekly and unhesitatingly 
acquiesced in her father's decision, and even assumed 
an appearance of cheerfulness to conceal her pain. 

"She bears this disappointment with all the even 
temper of her mother," observes the bishop, in re- 
lating this domestic sorrow to his faithful brother. 

Colonel Windebanke was so greatly incensed at the 
misconduct of his son, that he threatened to disin- 
herit him, from which the bishop kindly dissuaded 
him, and interceded for his forgiveness, though 
firmly determined to separate him from Margaret. 
"He is coming ere long to London," writes the 
bishop, " but I have forbidden his visits, and his own 
father allows that I have just reason for it. Poor 
young man ! his ruin is, I doubt, inevitable, but I'll 
take care somebody else shall not be ruined with 
him." The bishop hints that "he understands his 
worthless nephew has some very bad connections in 
France ; and that his friends feared he had entangled 
himself with some other woman in a promise of 
marriage. w T hich he was now desirous of recalling. 
You may be sure," continues the bishop, " it is more 
than a promise, for a thousand such engagements 
or oaths signify nothing in his mouth." 

Turner gives his daughter great credit for the 
virtuous and discreet manner in which she had 
conducted herself during her engagement to her 
unworthy cousin, and fervently adds, " God send her 



228 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

good deliverance. I am sure I shall account it a 
very good one to get rid of this lewd young man 
and all his pretences." 

Colonel Windebanke and. his lady were unremit- 
ting in their efforts to induce the bishop and his 
daughter to overlook the misconduct of the young 
man, and renew their engagement. The bishop 
steadily refused to accept his libertine nephew for a 
son-in-law and Margaret to become his wife. 

Margaret Turner had just attained her twenty-first 
year when this trial occurred. The tender sympathy 
of her father did much to console her. She was 
gifted with a very sweet voice, and possessed great 
taste and skill in music, w T hich is thus noticed by a 
friend, who had been staying with them, in a letter 
to Dr. Thomas Turner : — 

" To your young, fair, hopeful niece, the Lady 
Philomela, which name I bestowed upon her for the 
many innocent songs and anthems with which she 
pleased me, you must give my most hearty respects, 
with my blessing in God on her." 

After the termination of her engagement with her 
cousin, the bishop, in order to divert her mind from 
so painful a subject, engaged the famous musician 
Nichole to give her lessons. Nichole was charmed 
with her voice, " and," writes the bishop to his 
brother, "did make this bargain at entrance, that 
she should not break off from her learning till he had 
taught her his manner (as the word is) for at least 
some months; on that condition making her this 
compliment, ' that if she did not, in process of time, 
sing the best of her sex in England, it should be his 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 229 

fault, not hers ;' so much pleased he appeared to 
be with her voice. But I hope she can distinguish, 
at these years, between courtliness and the strictness 
of truth/' 

It is impossible to refrain from quoting some 
passages from the amusing letters of Eichard Allyn, 
from Holland, whither he had been sent by Dr. 
Thomas Turner, the brother of the deprived bishop, 
to purchase books cheaper than they could be pro- 
cured in Oxford. 

He speaks with infinite contempt of the Dutch. 
"The chief subject of their discourse," he says, "is 
the unkindness and ingratitude of sending home 
their troops ; and I find it would be as difficult a 
matter to convince a Dutchman of the reasonableness 
of our doing it as it would be to persuade him to 
be religious or not to love money. 

"It is not yet known," continues Allyn, "whether 
his Majesty (William III.) has any farther design in 
coming over hither than to hunt about Loo, and to 
endeavour to divert himself from that uneasiness 
and disturbance which the last sessions of parliament 
gave him. He passed through this city (Amsterdam) 
about a fortnight ago, but in much greater haste than 
some few years since he went through Oxford, for he 
would not so much as suffer the burgomasters to wait 
upon him with their compliments, but drove through 
as fast and with as little ceremony as any ordinary 
traveller would have done. 

" Whether this proceeded from an aversion in his 
temper towards appearing in public, or an unwil- 
lingness to put the town to trouble or expense, or 



230 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

-ft dislike to the place, is variously discoursed ; but 
most people impute it to the latter, knowing that he 
cannot have forgot the attempts which this place 
hath heretofore used to suppress his authority in 
these provinces. He lives, they say, very splendidly 
at Loo ; but he never appears so much like a king as 
when at the Hague, where his Court doth as much 
exceed what he usually keeps in England, as his 
English Court is greater than what he kept when he 
was only stadtholder. His palace there is, I am 
told, very magnificent, and is richly furnished with 
the spoils of Hampton Court and Kensington, some 
of which are to be found in his other houses in this 
country, of which he hath a great many." 

JRichard Allyn's estimate of the Dutch character 
did not improve by a longer residence at Amsterdam, 
for on September 1st he writes : — 

" These men of this country are so far influenced 
by the prince of it as to deny their toleration to that 
worship which alone is worthy of the glorious title 
of religion. The service of the Church of England 
is too heathenish, too superstitious to be suffered, 
though frequent and earnest petitions have been 
made by some honest English that reside here 
for the use of it in their assemblies. Yet, at the 
same time, heresies of all sorts, and all the name- 
less croaking spawn of fanaticism, all manner of 
rascallv vermin, such as tend to the scandal and 
reproach of religion, meet with public allowance. 
Nay, I doubt if this very people would stick at 
selling the best church they have to the Mogul, for 
an idol temple to worship the devil in, if they could 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 231 

but thereby establish a greater trade in his Indies; 
and I have too much reason to think so of them, 
having myself seen a stately reverend old church in 
Utrecht let out to hire bythis worshipful govern- 
ment during three weeks, to have a fair kept in it, 
without making any distinction in days, for as soon 
as their minister had concluded his evening sermon, 
the boxes and shops were opened, and their vile 
wares were exposed to sale." 

These racy, yet matter-of-fact letters of honest 
Richard Allyn, were doubtless highly appreciated by 
the nonjuring Bishop of Ely and all the Oxford 
Jacobites, as fully justifying their objection to a 
Dutch head of the Church of England. 

Meantime, the fair Margaret Turner, having over- 
come her ill-placed affection for her cousin Winde- 
banke, consented to become the wife of Richard 
Goul stone, Esq., a gentleman of family and fortune, 
of Widdyall, in Hertfordshire, with whose parents she 
and her father had long been on terms of intimate 
friendship. Her marriage with this gentleman took 
place early in 1700, with the consent and full appro- 
bation of the bishop, who writes to his brother, 
May 21 : — "Our young people are full of duty and 
acknowledgment of all favours, and no one is more 
sensible of all your good nature than I am." 

But Francis Turner's days were drawing to a close. 
This summer, 1700, he complains of a severe 
cough, and fears it will be aggravated by the air of 
smoky London. " Our young people," he says, 
" have returned to Widdyall. They live very happily 
with me ; but all are thinking of taking a new house." 



232 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

His cough became worse as the year waned, not- 
withstanding the great increase to his happiness the 
marriage of his daughter had caused. 

A most agreeable engagement, for the invalid 
father and his daughter and son-in-law to spend 
some time with Dr. Thomas Turner, was prevented 
by the severe and painful illness of the poor bishop 
on June 29, 1700, and he writes the following piteous 
letter to explain the impossibility of coming : — 

"I wish you could see my heart, how much it 
troubles me that I am still necessitated to defer the 
visit I designed you. But the plain truth is always 
the best excuse, though good King Charles II. 
would commonly say 'that all excuses were lies.' 
But it is too true. 

" Yesterday I had a desire to try my strength how 
I could endure Mr. Goulstone's coach as far as Putney, 
but it cost me no little anguish. To-morrow a new 
operator promises to bring me an implement, if not 
more effectual, yet less uneasy and more safe. I pray 
God, if it be His blessed will, to make it successful, 
that I may spend the little residue of my life in 
some tolerable ease, and not die often as they do who 
linger out a long life and a painful. 

" My uncle, Dr. Windebanke, is extreme obliging 
on this untoward occasion. I trust Mr. Wagstaflf too ; 
and can't help fearing to confess what I ail except to 
well-known physicians or friends. This makes me 
loth to go farther off from them in this condition ; 
besides, intending this purely as a visit of friendship 
to you and pleasure to myself, I would not bring a 
sick man to you, though I have no reason to despair 



TURNER, BISHOP OF ELY. 233 

of recovering apace. Will Collins was bespoken to 
drive us down, and he came this morning to know 
our day. I have obtained a week's respite to see how 
it will please God to deal with me. Meantime and 
ever I am yours most affectionately. 

" Mr. Goulstone and his spouse are your servants." 

He writes, with much satisfaction, October 14, of 
having met the young people in London, but adds, 
by way of postscript, after that date : — 

"The birthday of my unfortuate royal master, 
who now writes 68." 

When he wrote this Turner was unconscious that 
King James had already departed this life. His 
own summons was near approaching, for he did not 
survive the date of this letter three weeks. He 
expired the 2nd of November, 1700. He was in- 
terred in the parochial church of Tberfield. In 
compliance with his oft-expressed desire, his , remains 
were deposited by the side of his lamented wife, 
without any other memorial for himself than his 
name and the word Uxpergistur, " I shall awake." 

His son-in-law, Mr. Goulstone, writes, November 
23, 1700, " I and my wife are removed to Lincoln. 
She is in good health considering her situation. I 
am settling all accounts, to show my respect to that 
incomparable man who is gone to Heaven before us." 



234 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 



THOMAS KEN, 

BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 

CHAPTEE I. 

What Christian bosom but warms with a glow of 
loving veneration at the name of the heavenly-minded 
author of those sweet lyrics of the Church, the 
Morning Hymn and the Evening Hymn ! They 
have been for nearly two centuries familiar to the 
lips of the infants of the flock as to the hoary-headed 
elders of the congregation, and yet they tire not — 
they never can tire — for they are in their sublime 
simplicity suited to the comprehensions and adapted 
to the wants of all, from the youngest to the most 
mature, from the highest to the lowest. The hearts 
of rich and poor, the learned and the ignorant, alike 
swell for a moment as the successive appeals, so full 
of the fervour and the poetry of prayer, thrill from 
the ear to the soul. 

Thomas Ken was the descendant of a cadet branch 
of an ancient and honourable family, Ken, of Ken 
Place, in Somersetshire, whose wealth had been 
carried by an heiress into the noble house of Paulet 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 235 

of Hinton.* He was the youngest son of his father, 
a highly respectable attorney, of FurnivaTs Inn, and 
was born and baptized at Berkham stead, in Hertford- 
shire, in the month of July, 1637. His mother 
dying when he was scarcely four years old, the 
bereaved infant was adopted by his eldest sister, 
Anne, the wife of the afterwards celebrated Izaak 
Walton, the author of the ' Complete Angler,' and 
that lovely series of biographies, Lives of Donne, 
Wootton, Hooker, Herbert, and Sanderson. Izaak 
Walton, at that time ennobling the trade of a 
haberdasher, occupied a small house at the Fleet 
Street end of Chancery Lane, with his wife, whom he 
was accustomed to call " My Kenna," and took great 
delight in her sweet voice. Thomas Ken was also 
gifted by nature with a beautiful voice, and there 
can be little doubt that his taste and skill in music 
were fostered and cultivated by his early domestica- 
tion with his sister and her husband. From the 
latter he would also imbibe the refined and devotional 
cast of thought which gives so great a charm to all 
his writings, that delight in all things that were 
lovely, holy, and true, which taught him, while 
dwelling on the charms of creation, to " look through 
nature up to nature's God." 

Izaak Walton, perceiving evil days approaching, 
and having acquired a moderate competence, with- 
drew, with his beloved Kenna and her motherless 
little brother, their adopted child, from the uncon- 

* The daughter of Christopher Keri, of Ken Place, cousin to our 
apostolic bishop, married John, son of Sir Anthony Paulet, one of 
the most devoted followers of his unfortunate sovereign Charles I. 



236 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

genial atmosphere of the metropolis, in 1644, to that 
peaceful cottage on the banks of the Dove, in 
Staffordshire, where he was able to pursue his 
favourite recreation and indulge his literary tastes 
unmolested, and enjoyed the privilege of affording a 
safe and unsuspected refuge during the civil wars 
to Morley, Bishop of Winchester, and other loyal 
gentlemen. 

It was probably through Morley 's influence that 
Thomas Ken received his education at the Wykeham 
College, at Winchester. He was sent there at 
thirteen, and acquitted himself so diligently that he 
was in the following year chosen a scholar on that 
foundation. While at Winchester a close and 
tender friendship was formed between Thomas Ken 
and Francis Turner, that lasted through life, and was 
only dissolved by the death of Turner. Both were 
poets, and though Francis Turner, as the son of the 
Dean of Canterbury, and grandson of Charles I.'s 
secretary of state, was born in a higher position than 
Thomas Ken, the storms of civil w r ar had reduced 
him to an equality with any poor scholar in the 
college. It is certain that he and Thomas Ken lived 
there on terms of brotherly love. Their names 
remain inscribed on the stone buttress of the south- 
east cloister, with the date of the last year they were 
together there — 1656. Turner's name was only 
recently traced out by the present learned master of 
Wykeham College, Dr. Moberly. 

After a most honourable career as a Wykehamite, 
Ken was superannuated in 1656, according to the 
rules of the institution, having entered his nineteenth 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 237 

year. He followed his friend, Francis Turner, to 
Oxford, but as there was no vacancy for him at New 
College, he was not at first allowed the happiness of 
joining him, being compelled to enter Hart Hall, 
afterwards Hertford College, where Magdalen Hall 
now is. The following year, however, the wish of his 
heart was gratified ; he was admitted as a proba- 
tioner at New College, and became a fellow-student 
with his beloved school companion. 

The Warden of New College was, at that time, 
George Marshall, who had been illegally obtruded 
by the parliamentarian visitors in defiance of the 
statutes, which prescribed that none other than a 
Wykehamite and a duly elected fellow should hold 
the w 7 ardenship of New College. George Marshall 
was neither. His claims consisted in having been 
chaplain to the godly garrison of the parliament and 
the dictation of General Cromwell. 

The fellows stoutly protested against the illegal 
intrusion of an unqualified warden, but after a brave 
resistance, found themselves compelled to succumb 
to military despotism. Their college had been 
marked by Cromwell for spoil and suppression, and 
was only preserved by Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes 
venturing, at the risk of his own life, to disobey the 
mandate of his unscrupulous commander for its de- 
struction. 

In defiance of puritanical supremacy, a musical 
society was established at Oxford, in 1657, of which 
Ken was a member, and occasionally sang his part 
and performed on the lute, viol, and organ. He 
remained at New College till after the Eestoration, 



238 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

distinguished himself by his learning, probity, and 
piety, and gained the love and esteem of the society 
by his endearing qualities. As soon as he was in 
circumstances to testify his regard for the college, he 
subscribed one hundred pounds towards the expenses 
of their new buildings and improved gardens. 

It was probably during his residence at New 
College that his longest poetic work was commenced, 
although a later date has, by some of his more recent 
biographers, been assigned to this almost unknown 
production of Ken, which bears the unmistakable 
marks of a young inexperienced writer. 

' Edmund,' an epic poem, on the martyrdom of 
the East Anglian king by the pagan Danes, at 
Hoxne, as it is now called ; but Ken has adopted the 
ancient name of Hegelsdune or Eaglesdune. It is 
formed on the model of Tasso's Gierusaleme, having 
nothing local or historical belonging to it. Neither 
does the author seem aware of the rich and imagina- 
tive traditions, which enshrine the memory of our 
Anglo-Saxon royal saint, retained with wondrous love 
and fidelity by the Suffolk peasantry, although his 
shrine has been broken and his stately abbey made 
desolate. Many a church is dedicated to St. Edmund, 
Martyr and King, and decorated with his elegant 
open coronal intersected with the two Danish 
arrows. Moreover, showing greater love in those 
days, many public-houses and hostelries on the road 
from Eaglesdune to Bury St. Edmunds bear the 
same for signs. But vain it is to look in Ken's 
c Edmund ' for the fanciful dramatis personce still 
remembered at the scene of the royal Christian's 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 239 

martyrdom. The treacherous bridegroom who be- 
trayed him seeing the glitter of his gold spurs under 
the bridge over the Waveney ; the malediction which 
keeps all East Anglian brides and bridegrooms from 
crossing Hoxne bridge to this day ; how, after the 
pagan Hubbar nailed him to the oak, and caused him 
to be shot to death by the cruel Danes with arrows, 
and cut off Ins head, a she wolf (peradventure it was 
the king's own faithful wolf-dog) ran away with 
King Edmund's head between her paws, and hid it 
in the deep dell of Eaglesdune, and the darksome 
den became radiant with phosphoric light; while the 
raven, some say the head, cried "here, here;" and 
then when his sorrowing friend went to inter head 
and body, carrying them on a bier of oak boughs 
to Bury, the wolf walked as chief mourner, and the 
more wolfish Danes, converted by so many rather 
doubtful miracles, followed penitent, with trailing 
lances. But not one word have we in the ' Edmund ' 
of Ken, from quaint tradition, or picturesque chro- 
nicle, or pastoral landscape, the winding Waveney, 
or the darksome dell of Eaglesdune. 

The poem bears the character of a mere collection 
of boyish exercises, wherein poetic enthusiasm leads 
the tyro to gain skill in his own language — all 
that juvenile poems are good for, with very few 
exceptional cases. Nay, in the only good passage, 
those familiar with Winchester will recognise re- 
semblance to some well-known ancient verses, current 
throughout the southern diocese, in this rather grand 
portrait of the requisites of a perfect priest. We see 
the Wintonian therein, and will say no more, lest 



240 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

scorn should befal the only good extract we can find 
in ' Edmund.' 

A perfect Servant of God. 

" Give me the priest these graces to possess — 
Of an ambassador the just address, 
A father's tenderness, a shepherd's care, 
A leader's courage, who the cross can bear ; 
A ruler's awfulness, a watcher's eye, 
A pilot's skill the helm in storms to ply ; 
A fisher's patience and a labourer's toil, 
A guide's dexterity to disembroil ; 
A prophet's inspiration from above, 
A teacher's knowledge, and a Saviour's love ; 
Give me in him a light upon a hill, 
Whose rays that whole circumference can fill ; 
In God's own word and sacred learning versed, 
Deep in the study of the heart immersed ; 
Who in sick souls can the disease descry, 
And wisely fit restoratives apply ; 
To beautiful pastures leads his sheep, 
Watchful from hellish wolves his fold to keep." 

Immediately after the Restoration Ken took the 
degree of B.A., and was admitted into holy orders. 
He received the degree of M.A. early in 1663, and 
was appointed his chaplain by Lord Maynard, who 
also presented him with the living of Easton Parva, 
in the hundred of Dunmow, in Essex. This was 
Ken's first church preferment. The parish church of 
Lit$e Easton is just without the park at Easton 
Lodge, the seat of Lord Maynard, a most exemplary 
nobleman, who, with that admirable woman, Lady 
Margaret, his wife, lived on the most intimate terms 
of friendship with Ken, and seconded all his endea- 
vours for the good of his flock during the two happy 
years he held the rectory of Little Easton. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 241 

Being summoned to a more extended sphere of 
usefulness by the Bishop of Winchester, he resigned 
his living in Essex, and repaired to Winchester, 
where he was invited by the bishop to take up his 
abode in the palace, in 1665. Ken now enjoyed the 
happiness of being domesticated with his beloved 
brother-in-law, Izaak Walton, whom Bishop Morley, 
in grateful remembrance of the shelter, hospitality, 
and solace accorded by him and Kenna in their 
cottage by the Dove, in the days of adversity and 
persecution, now gratefully requited, by inviting them 
with their son and daughter, to partake his prosperity 
when restored to his episcopal palace, by living with 
him in peace and affluence for the rest of their 
days. 

Kenna did not long survive this auspicious change 
in their fortunes ; she died soon after her removal to 
the Winchester palace, to the great affliction of her 
husband and her brother, Thomas Ken, who ever 
repaid her maternal care of his bereaved infancy and 
childhood with the dutiful affection of a son. Izaak 
Walton continued, by the bishop's desire, to reside in 
the palace, where he wrote the lives of Herbert, 
Hooker, and Sanderson. In all these the sweet spirit 
of Ken may be traced. 

The unanimous votes of the fellows of Winchester 
College, meantime, had elected Ken to the first 
fellowship that was vacated by death after the 
Restoration, and he became resident in the Wyke- 
hamist House. While there, he took upon himself 
gratuitously the duty of preaching at the neglected 
church of St. John in the Soke, for which there was 

E 



242 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

neither minister nor endowment. This he called his 
cure, and God so blessed his labour of love, that he 
was the means of bringing many Anabaptists and 
Socinians into the Church of England. These he 
always baptized himself. 

So devoted was Ken to the improvement of his 
time, that he never made but one sleep, always rising 
from his bed when he awoke, even if it happened as 
early as three o'clock in the morning. 

Bishop Morley marked his appreciation of Ken's 
zealous labours in the service of the Church and the 
poor by making him his domestic chaplain, and 
bestowing upon him first the living of Brightstone, 
in the Isle of Wight. At Brightstone his name is 
still held in loving veneration, and the local tradi- 
tion of the fair isle asserts that his favourite walk, 
while composing his devotional poetry, was under the 
tall yew hedge that bounds the rectory garden, 
sheltered from bitter winds and open to the cheering 
beams of the sun. 

In this peaceful and congenial scene of Ken's 
thoughtful life, now advancing to its meridian, that 
series of hymns so dear to the Christian Church, the 
Morning, the Evening, and the Midnight Hymns, 
were written. 

The Midnight Hymn having deeper spirituality 
in it than could be appreciated in those days, was 
almost forgotten for more than a century after the 
death of Ken, but has been latterly rescued from 
oblivion, and published, with the Morning and the 
Evening Hymns, by the Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge, in a cheap form — a cheap 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 243 

boon to restless invalids during the lonely vigils of 
nights of bodily or mental suffering. 

Ken always commenced his devotional exercises, 
on leaving his bed, by singing the Morning Hymn to 
his own accompaniment on the lute, and concluded 
them at night, the last thing before retiring to his 
pillow, with the Evening Hymn. 

He possessed great musical skill as well as a very 
rich voice. There is a most interesting portrait ot 
him about this period of his life, in possession of Sir 
Richard Colt Hoare, which has been engraved for 
his life by the Rev. W. L. Bowles, showing that he 
possessed both personal and intellectual beauty. 

Two very happy years were spent by Ken at his 
peaceful rectory at Brightstone, a pleasant little 
village about four miles from Carisbrook Castle, with 
a statelv church and a fair sea-view, but sheltered 
from cold winds by overhanging hills. 

In the course of those years he was occasionally 
summoned, as the chaplain of Bishop Morley, to 
attend in that capacity during his lordship's residence 
at his palace at Chelsea. 

There are several interesting notices in the diary 
of the pious Lady Warwick, of the impression made 
on her by Ken's preaching at Chelsea church, where 
it was her good fortune to hear him, she residing in 
that parish. 

On Sunday, 9th of February, 1668, she makes the 
following note in her diary : " I went to church to 
hear Mr. Ken preach. His text was, * Behold thou 
art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing 
come on thee.' It was a very good sermon, and 



244 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

God was pleased much to affect my heart with it ; 
and whilst he was preaching on that passage, 'sin 
no more/ God was pleased to make me, with strong 
desires and many tears, to beg power against sin for 
the time to come." 

Bishop Morley recalled Ken to Winchester, and 
preferred him to the dignity of a prebendary of 
Winchester Cathedral, and he was installed, April 
12, 1669. In the following month the bishop gave 
him the Kectory of East Woodhay. 

As it was contrary to Ken's principles to hold two 
livings, he resigned Brightstone the same day he 
was collated to Woodhay. He held the living of 
Woodhay from the 28th of May, 1669, to the 8th of 
November, 1672, when he resigned that preferment 
for his friend, George Hooper, and came to reside 
entirely at Winchester, where he resumed his labours 
for the neglected parishioners of St. John's Church 
in the Soke, and attracted great crowds to his unpaid 
ministry. 

He made the tour of Italy, and visited Borne in 
the year of the jubilee, 1675, accompanied by his 
nephew, young Izaak Walton, and was absent almost 
a year -in examining the classical and historical anti- 
quities of that interesting portion of Christendom. 

The simple but refined taste of Ken was naturally 
offended by the vestiges of pagan idolatry which he 
everywhere detected in the gorgeous processions and 
exuberant ceremonials of the Eternal City and the 
pompous ritual of the Papal Church. 

On their return, Ken said " he gave God thanks 
that he had been permitted to undertake this journey, 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 245 

since what he had seen had confirmed him in his love 
for the Reformed Church, of the excellency and 
purity of which he was more than ever convinced." 
This remark he was accustomed to repeat to the end 
of his life. 

He took his degree of B.D. in 1678, and of D.D. 
the following year, when he was appointed chaplain 
and almoner to the Princess of Orange, at the 
Hague. Ken's friend, Dr. Hooper, had just resigned 
that office in disgust, on account of the uncivil treat- 
ment he had received from the Prince of Orange, 
whose hostility to the Church of England was at that 
time open and undisguised, and induced him to do 
violence to the conscience of the princess, by com- 
pelling her to desert her own chapel and the English 
liturgy, to attend the Dutch schismatic service with 
him. 

While at the Hague, Ken's ministry succeeded in 
winning a convert to the Church of England, whom 
he names with much satisfaction to his friend the 
Archbishop of Canterbury in the following letter : — 

" My very good Lord, 

" I should not dare to make this invasion on 
your grace but that my duty enforces me, and the 
ambition I have to send news which I know will be 
extremely welcome to your grace ; and the rather be- 
cause it is of a convert to our Church, and of a con- 
vert who is no less a person than Col. Fitzpatrick ; 
who, upon a deliberate inquiry, is so fully satisfied 
with our Church, that he communicates with us next 
Lord's day in the Princess's Chapel. 'Tis not to be 



246 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

imagined how much both their Highnesses are 
pleased with the colonel's happy resolution, and the 
prince commanded me to give my lord of London a 
particular account of it, which I have done. 

"On Monday his Highness goes for Germany. 
The pretence is hunting, but the chief thing which 
he proposes to himself, we understand, is to discourse 
with the German princes about the present posture 
of Europe, and to take accurate measures to expose 
the common enemy. 

(i I most earnestly beg your grace's benediction. 
My good lord, your grace's most obedient and most 
humble servant, 

" Tho. Ken. 

" Hague, September ldth, 1680." 

Dr. Ken prevailed on the princess to remain steady 
to the faith in which she had been baptized and con- 
firmed. This drew upon him the ill-will of the 
prince, who hated him still more than he had done 
his predecessor, and took every opportunity of testify- 
ing his dislike. 

The Princess of Orange, who was much comforted 
and edified by the ministry of Ken, confided to him 
her distress at the trouble and disgrace in which her 
beautiful English maid of honour, JVIiss Jane Worth, 
was likely to be involved, in consequence of the per- 
fidious conduct of Count Zulestien, an illegitimate 
uncle of the Prince of Orange, and one of his especial 
favourites, who had effected the ruin of the young 
lady under a solemn promise of marriage, which he 
now basely refused to fulfil, and was encouraged in 



KEN, BISHOr OF BATH AND WELLS. 247 

his dishonourable conduct by the prince, his master. 
Ken was deeply concerned at this information, for 
the young lady was the niece of his beloved friend 
and patron Lord Maynard, whose sister Anne was her 
mother, so that Jane was probably well known to 
him during his chaplaincy to that nobleman and his 
ministry at Little Easton. Anxious to preserve both 
the unhappy girl and her family from disgrace and 
sorrow, Ken immediately sought an interview with 
Count Zulestien, to whom he represented the turpi- 
tude and cruelty of his behaviour to the unfortunate 
girl, and described her anguish in such moving terms, 
that Zulestien was touched with compunction, and 
declared his willingness to repair his wrong as far as 
he could by marrying her as soon as an opportunity 
should occur. A few days afterwards the Prince of 
Orange w r ent on business to Amsterdam, and the 
princess, availing herself of his absence, allowed Ken 
to marry Zulestien to Jane Worth in her chapel. 

When the Prince of Orange learned what had 
taken place during his absence, he was so much dis- 
pleased that he rated his consort, and used the most 
unbecoming language to Dr. Ken, telling him he 
would not suffer him to remain anv longer in his 
present office. 

Ken replied, " that it was his desire to resign it, 
and requested permission of the princess to return to 
England ;" but she implored him not to desert her, 
and her tears and lamentations gave so serious a turn 
to the affair, that the prince, not wishing the story 
to be repeated to his disadvantage in the English 
Court, condescended to request Dr. Ken to remain 



248 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

and resume his duties in the princess's chapel. Ken 
reluctantly (jomplied, for he had no respect for the 
prince, and was impatient of witnessing his ungracious 
behaviour to the princess. 

"Dr. Ken was with me," writes Sidney in his 
journal, March 21st, 1680 ; " he is horribly unsatisfied 
with the Prince of Orange. He thinks he is not 
kind to his wdfe, and is determined to speak to him 
about it, even if he kicks him out of doors." 

Sidney, who was a strong political partizan of 
William, does not say a word in defence of his conduct 
as a husband, but quotes the testimony of Sir Gabriel 
Silvius, a Dutch gentleman, the husband of one of 
Mary's ladies, in addition to that of Dr. Ken, in these 
words, about a month later in his private journal : — 
" Sir Gabriel Silvius and Dr. Ken were both here, 
and both complain of the prince, especially of his 
usage of his wife. They think she is sensible of it, 
and that it doth greatly contribute to her illness." 

Despairing of doing anything to improve the con- 
dition of his royal mistress, and at the same time 
suffericg from the noxious effects of the climate, Dr. 
Ken returned to England in 1680, broken alike in 
health and spirits. King Charles, though aware of 
his disagreement with the Prince of Orange, gave 
him a gracious reception, and testified his approbation 
of his conduct at the Hague, by promising to appoint 
him to be one of his own chaplains as soon as a 
vacancy should occur. 

In the summer of 1682, Ken was summoned to 
attend the death-bed of his beloved and honoured 
friend, Lady Maynard, who desired to receive the 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 249 

last offices of the Church for the sick and dying from 
him who had been for more than twenty years her 
spiritual confidant and adviser. 

He administered the holy communion to her on 
Whitsunday, and shortly after she entered into" her 
rest. Ken was requested to preach her funeral 
sermon, which he did on the 30th of June, 1682, 
rendering a deserved tribute to her virtues, piety, and 
tender charity to the sick and suffering poor. This 
sermon was printed, and universally read and ad- 
mired. 

He composed and published his excellent " Manual 
of Prayers for the Scholars in Winchester College, 
and other devout Christians," the preceding year. 

Early in the summer of 1683, Ken was entreated 
by Lord Dartmouth to accompany him in his own 
ship as chaplain-in-chief of the fleet that was going 
out to demolish the fortifications of Tangier, on 
which Charles II. had expended a very large sum 
annually, in the vain hope of rendering it a service- 
able port. 

" I think it of the highest importance," wrote the 
noble admiral, " to have the ablest and best man I 
can possibly obtain to go with me, both for the service 
of God and the good government of the clergy that 
are chaplains in the fleet. My most earnest request 
to you is, that if it be not too great an inconvenience, 
you would do me the honour and favour to go with 
me this short voyage. I beg it of you for God's sake, 
and as I am to answer to Him for the preservation 
of so many souls as He hath been pleased to put 
under my care. I have nothing more but to beg 



250 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

your prayers and blessing, with pardon for this con- 
fident desire." 

Ken was not the man to whom this earnest appeal 
could be made in vain. He was aware that nothing 
could be more deplorable than the condition, and too 
often the moral characters, of naval chaplains as a 
body ; but the idea that it might possibly be in his 
power to improve their practice by accompanying the 
expedition, was sufficient to induce him to condescend 
to the office so earnestly pressed on his accept- 
ance. 

Pepys, the Secretary of the Admiralty, who was 
in the commission, was delighted at Ken's accepting 
the appointment, and records in his diary very san- 
guine anticipations " of his happiness in making the 
voyage in company," as he says, " with a worthy leader, 
Lord Dartmouth, and conversing with companions who 
were of first-rate talents in divinity, law, and science, 
as Dr. Ken, Dr. Trumbull, Dr. Lawrence, and Mr. 
Sheres. We shall enjoy," adds Pepys, " concerts much 
above ordinary of voices, flutes, and viols, good- 
humour, good cheer, some good books, the company 
of my nearest friend, Mr. Hewer, and a reasonable 
prospect of returning home in two months." 

Such was the pleasant programme of Dr. Ken's 
summer voyage up the Mediterranean ; but, un- 
fortunately, the hopes so agreeably set forth by the 
journalist of the expedition were not realized. Foul 
weather set in from the day of their embarkation, 
August 8th, and on the 22nd they were fain to cast 
anchor in Plymouth Sound. Dr. Ken enjoyed the 
relief of going on shore for a few hours, with Pepys 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 251 

and some others of the gentlemen, to see Mount 
Edgecumbe. They were hospitably received by the 
lady of that beautiful domain ; but, unluckily, her 
husband, Sir Eichard Edgecumbe, took that oppor- 
tunity of visiting Lord Dartmouth on board the 
" Grafton," where they indulged in such a deep 
carouse, that his lordship was compelled to keep his 
cabin during the chief part of the voyage, from its 
effects. Unfortunately, intemperance was the be- 
setting sin of the brave admiral, which alone would 
render the voyage irksome to one of Ken's calm and 
holy manners. 

On Sunday, September 2nd, Pepys records, " that 
after Dr. Ken's performance of the usual services, 
they were at supper in Lord Dartmouth's state cabin, 
when the discourse turned on spiritual agencies and 
the appearance of ghosts, in which Ken asserted his 
belief. This was denied by himself and the others, 
and the argument being continued from day to day, 
had not concluded on the 12th of the month, when 
they reached Tangier." 

It happened, however, that Dr. Trumbull and some 
of the warmest of Ken's opponents being lodged in 
the citadel, were annoyed with such unaccountable 
nocturnal disturbances, that Lawrence told Pepys 
" he was now fully convinced of the existence of 
spirits, this disturbance having continued for some 
time, and appearing every three or four nights." It 
is very tantalizing that either Dr. Lawrence did not 
tell, or Pepys did not note down, what appearances 
there were, for noises cannot be said to appear ; and 
Kirke's garrison was so outrageous, that noise, either 



252 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

by night or day, was by no means to be considered 
supernatural. 

The first Sunday spent at Tangier Dr. Ken 
preached in the church there, "making a most 
excellent sermon," says Pepys, " full of the skill of 
the preacher, but nothing of the natural philosopher." 
Certes, the discussion of natural philosophy, however 
valuable at proper times and seasons, it was no voca- 
tion of Dr. Ken to introduce in the pulpit, for the 
edification of Kirke and. his myrmidons. Indeed, 
Pepys professes himself in pain for the feelings of 
those worthies, saying, very naively, in reference to 
one of Ken's sermons, preached before this respect- 
able audience : "To church, a very fine and season- 
able, but unsuccessful argument from Doctor Ken, 
particularly in reproof of the vices of this town of 
Tangier. I was in pain for Governor Kirke and his 
officers about us in church, but I perceived they 
regarded it not." That is, they, comporting them- 
selves like deaf adders, never listened to the preacher, 
if he preached ever so wisely, and therefore could not 
hear and mark the sermon. No adders are so deaf 
as the inattentive. And Pepys, who listened and 
applied our apostolic Ken's reproofs — to his neigh- 
bours — took so little heed for himself, that he has 
this remark for the afternoon service that day : 
"Immediately from dinner to church. A foolish 
sermon from Mr. Hughes, but had the pleasure of 
again seeing fine Mrs. Kirke, better dressed than 
before, but yet less than I have known her." 

Certainly, Ken was not favoured with a very hope- 
ful congregation at Tangier ! 



KEN T , MSIIOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 253 

Notices occur from time to time of Ken's sermons, 
and from so severe a sermon-critic as Pepys they may 
be considered very favourable. It was not long before 
the evil Governor Kirke and the apostolic Ken came to 
collision. In the first place, Ken opposed the intru- 
sion of a swearing, drinking clergyman, one after Go- 
vernor Kirke's own heart, and disreputably connected 
among his familiars, who was to succeed Mr. Hughes 
in the ministry of the parish church at Tangier. 
High words afterwards occurred between Governor 
Kirke and Dr. Ken, who withstood the ferocious 
soldier to his face concerning the excessive blasphemy 
and oaths that resounded on all sides. Dr. Ken had 
preached against it that morning; as usual, Kirke 
had heard the sermon as though he heard it not, and 
then Dr. Ken tried individual remonstrance. Pepys 
says he took part on the side of Dr. Ken, After this 
we hear little of Ken, excepting that he suffered from 
the climate, and had to keep his chamber with fever 
and headache, which seems to have been endemical 
among the English that autumn at Tangier. Dr. 
Trumbull lost his self-command, owing to his terrors 
of some undefined danger from demons. Dr. Ken 
was extremely urgent with Lord Dartmouth that 
this gentleman should be sent home, fearing for his 
reason. 

Ken finished his epic poem of ' Edmund ' while at 
Tangier and on the voyage home. He sailed with 
the fleet on the 5th of March, 1684, for England, 
and landed at Portsmouth the first week in April. 
He hastened at once to Winchester ; but his revered 
brother-in-law, Izaak Walton, had expired in his 



254 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

absence, in his ninety-first year, and had been 
buried three months in Prior Silkstead's Chapel, in 
the cathedral. His epitaph is said to have been 
written by Ken. It is as follows : — 

" Alas, he's gone before, 
Gone to return no more ! 
Our panting breasts aspire 
After their aged sire ; 
Whose well-spent life did last 
Full ninety years and past. 
But now he hath begun 
That which will never be done ; 
Crowned with eternal bliss, 
We wish our souls with his." 

Izaak Walton had bequeathed a memorial ring to 
Ken, thus inscribed : — " For my brother, Dr. Ken. 
A friend's farewell. I. W." The date of the vener- 
able donor's death, "Obiit, 15th Dec, 1683," was 
added to the inscription. 

The blood-stone ring, which had been the much- 
prized legacy of Dr. Donne to Walton, with the 
effigy of the blessed Saviour on the cross, in the 
form of an anchor, the emblem of hope, was also 
delivered to Ken ; probably it had been promised to 
him by his venerable brother-in-law. Almost all 
Ken's subsequent letters are sealed with it, and also 
his will. This precious relic was inherited by the 
son of Izaak Walton, who in like manner sealed his 
will with this memorial of Dr. Donne, Izaak Walton, 
and Bishop Ken. We hope it is still in existence. 

In the succeeding October, Ken was summoned to 
Farnham Castle, to perform the melancholy duty of 
attending the death-bed of his venerated friend and 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 255 

patron, Dr. Morley, Bishop of Winchester, whose 
departing spirit he soothed with his prayers and filial 
attentions. Morley scarcely survived his old friend 
Izaak Walton ten months. 

Ken was appointed as one of the royal chaplains 
by Charles II., who, bad as he was himself, enter- 
tained a sincere respect for the truthful simplicity 
and blameless life of this apostolic man. 

One Sunday, when Ken was going to preach at 
Whitehall, the Merry Monarch quitted the circle of 
his vicious flatterers, with the remark, " I must go 
and hear Ken tell me of my faults." 

The same summer, his Majesty proposing to spend 
some time at Winchester, Ken was placed in an un- 
pleasant dilemma by Nell Gwynn taking possession of 
his prebendal house for her lodgings, it being very 
conveniently situated in close proximity to the 
temporary abode of her royal paramour, whom, she 
flattered herself, the newly-appointed chaplain would 
not wish to offend. 

Greatly, however, had she mistaken the uncom- 
promising integrity of the man; for when he was 
advised to allow her to remain, as it would be well- 
pleasing to the king, Ken indignantly replied, " Not 
for his three kingdoms," and instantly sent a stern 
message to warn the bold intruder " that no woman 
living in open defiance of God's law should abide 
under the shadow of his roof." 

Finding him so much in earnest, Nell Gwynn 
angrily withdrew, and carried her complaints to the 
king. Ken was about to justify his exclusion of the 
royal favourite, but Charles, with his usual blunt 



256 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

frankness, exclaimed, " Odds fish, man ! though I 
am not good myself, I can respect those who are !" 

So far from testifying displeasure at the un- 
compromising spirit with which Dr. Ken had acted, 
he astonished a circle of time-serving courtiers, who 
were suggesting successors to the see when the bishop- 
ric of Bath and Wells became vacant, by asking, with 
some vivacity, " Where is the good little man who 
refused the lodging to poor Nell?" Then, in a 
graver tone, he impressively observed, " I intend the 
bishopric of Bath and Wells for Dr. Ken, and it is 
my own especial appointment." 

No one was more surprised at the royal appoint- 
ment than Ken himself, who thus commemorates his 
unexpected elevation to the hierarchy in the dedica- 
tion of his hymns to his friend Dr. Hooper : — 

" Amongst the herdsmen, I, a common swain, 
Lived, pleased with my low dwelling on the plain ; 
Till up, like Amos, on a sudden caught, 
I to the pastoral chair was trembling brought." 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 257 



CHAPTEE II. 

Ken was now a bishop designate ; but so indigent 
was he at the time of his nomination to the see of 
Bath and Wells, that he was wholly destitute of the 
means requisite to meet the expenses attendant on 
entering od the episcopate and providing an equi- 
page suitable to the dignified position he was unex- 
pectedly appointed to fill. The means of doing this 
were generously supplied by Francis Morley, the 
nephew of his early patron and friend, George 
Morley, the late Bishop of Winchester. Aware 
of the state of Dr. Ken's finances, Francis Morley 
voluntarily offered to assist him with a loan of the 
sum necessary for his present exigencies. This was 
the only debt Ken ever incurred, and' he faithfully 
repaid it, obliging himself to the most rigorous course 
of self-denial till it was done, even abstaining from 
the exercise of his accustomed offices of charity ; tell- 
ing his chaplain "that it behoved him to be just 
before he could enjoy the happiness of ministering to 
the necessities of others, for while he was in debt he 
had nothing of his own, and must himself be reckoned 
among the poor." 

Ken was consecrated at Lambeth Palace on St. 



258 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Paul's day, January 25. His early friend and school- 
fellow, Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely, assisted at this 
solemnity, and was one of the prelates who, with 
Archbishop Sancroft, placed their hands upon his 
head to confer the blessing. The sermon was 
preached by another of his early friends and fellow 
students at Wykeham College, the Eev. Edward 
Young, who had become a prebendary of Salisbury. 
The text was from the Second Epistle of St. Paul to 
Timothy, chapter i. verse 6 : — " Wherefore I put thee 
in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God 
which is in thee by the laying on of hands." 

Ken was eight-and-forty when thus raised to the im- 
portant dignity of a bishop. It had been usual for every 
newly-consecrated bishop to give a splendid dinner 
to the nobility, privy councillors, and clergy who 
honoured him by accepting his invitation to become 
his guests on that occasion ; but Ken, following the 
example of Dr. John Fell, Bishop of Oxford, devoted 
the sum it would have cost to honour this custom to 
the fund for the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral. 
The fact is thus recorded in Dugdale's ' History of 
St. Paul's Cathedral:' — " January 26th. Among the 
list of contributors, Dr. Thomas Ken, Lord Bishop of 
Bath and Wells, in lieu of his consecration dinner 
and gloves, 100Z." 

The sudden and alarming illness of the king, who 
was attacked with apoplexy on the 2nd of February, 
just eight days after Ken's consecration, caused an 
immediate delay in the new prelate's induction into 
the temporalities of his see. 

Intent only on the performance of his duty as a 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 259 

faithful chaplain, Ken permitted neither cares nor 
thoughts, connected with personal business, to divide 
his attention from the spiritual weal of his dying 
sovereign. 

He took occasion, when the Duchess of Portsmouth 
entered the room, to offer a serious remonstrance to 
the king, and to represent so effectually his miscon- 
duct to the queen, that he succeeded in prevailing on 
his Majesty to dismiss the duchess, and send for his 
injured consort for the purpose of entreating her 
pardon. Nor did the bold bad woman again venture 
to cross the threshold of the chamber of death. 

For upwards of three days and nights Ken watched 
with unremitting solicitude the fluctuations of the 
fatal malady, and finally took upon himself the solemn 
duty of informing the king of the awful change that 
awaited him, and warning him of the necessity of 
penitence and prayer. Even Burnet acknowledges 
that Ken " laboured to awaken the king's conscience, 
and spoke like a man inspired." 

While reading the office for the sick and dying 
from the Book of Common Prayer, Ken paused, and 
asked the king if he repented of his sins ; and on 
Charles declaring his contrition, proceeded to pro- 
nounce the absolution, but vainly entreated him to 
receive the sacrament. This the dying monarch 
evasively declined. 

When the royal chamber was cleared by the order 
of the Duke of York, Ken was compelled to with- 
draw with the other prelates and nobles, and Father 
Huddlestone being privily introduced through the 
door leading from the back stairs into the alcove, 



260 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

where the royal bed stood, administered the last rites 
of the Church of Rome to the expiring king, whose 
hearing had already begun to fail. 

As the demise of King Charles occurred before 
Ken had been legally inducted into his diocese, fresh 
instruments were required from the new sovereign to 
enable him to do so. These were granted by James II., 
who graciously observed — "Dr. Ken is by far the 
best preacher among the Protestant divines." 

As a mark of his respect for Ken's principles and 
character, and also, perhaps, to conciliate his regard, 
James appointed him to the distinguished honour of 
being his right hand supporter at the royal solemnity 
of his coronation. 

The king, when he took his oath, rose from his 
chair, and attended by the Lord Great Chamberlain, 
and supported by the two bishops (Ken and Crew), 
with the sword of state carried before him, went 
to the altar, and laying his hand on the Evangelists, 
he took the oath following : " The things which I 
have before promised I will perform and keep. So 
help me God and the contents of this book." And 
then he kissed the book.* 

Burnet, who never misses an opportunity of de- 
tracting from Ken, says " he had a very edifying way 
of preaching, but it was more apt to move the 
passions than to instruct, so that his sermons were 
rather beautiful than solid, yet his way in them was 
very taking." 

In the winter of 1685, Ken delivered a series of 
Lent lectures on the Church catechism, in the chapel 

* 'King James II.'s Coronation,* by Sandford. Folio, 1689. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 261 

dedicated to St. Etheldreda attached to the episcopal 
palace of his friend, Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely, 
where his eloquence and persuasive manner attracted 
great crowds to attend his ministry. This series on 
the catechism afterwards expanded into one of his 
most admired prose works. So great an impression, 
indeed, was created by his eloquence, that the curi- 
osity of the Princess Anne of Denmark was excited, 
and she addressed the following note to the Bishop 
of Ely, signifying her intention of coming privately 
to hear Dr. Ken, and requesting that some place 
might be provided where she might do so without 
being recognised. These are her words : — 

" I hear the Bishop of Bath and Wells expounds 
this afternoon at your chapel, and I have a great 
mind to hear him ; therefore I desire you to do me 
the favour to let some place be kept for me where I 
may hear and be the least taken notice of, for I shall 
bring but one lady with me, and desire I may not be 
known. I should not have given you the trouble, 
but I was afraid if I had sent anybody they might 
have made a mistake. Pray let me know when it 
begins." 

From motives of Christian love, Ken avoided con- 
troversy as unprofitable, and tending to engender ill- 
will between persons of different ways of thinking, 
delighting rather in promoting peace and love be- 
tween all members of the Church universal. 

He now devoted himself to his pastoral duties, 
and was unremitting in his labours for the instruction 
of the children of the poor, by the establishment of 
parochial schools and lending libraries stocked with 



262 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

useful books. In the summer time he went often to 
some great parish, where he would preach twice, 
catechise, and confirm. When at home on Sundays 
he would have twelve poor men or women to dine 
with him in his hall ; always endeavouring, while he 
refreshed them with a plentiful meal, to comfort their 
spirits with some cheerful discourse, in which he 
endeavoured to convey useful instruction. When 
his humble guests had dined, he had what was left 
divided among them to carry home to their families. 

The poor at Wells being very numerous, he earn- 
estly desired to improve their condition, for which he 
often tried to devise expedients. One of his favourite 
plans was the establishment of a workhouse ; not the 
much abused parochial poorhouse of modern times, 
but an institution for providing the honest and indus- 
trious with employment, for which they were to be 
paid the full value of their work, and relieved from 
the oppression of the tradesmen, who took advantage 
of the necessities of the poor to pay them very scan- 
tily for their labour, and grew rich at their expense ; 
but he was too short a time in possession of his 
benefice to carry out his wise and benevolent pro- 
jects. 

It was his practice, when any poor person begged 
of him on the highway, to pause and examine whether 
he or she could say the Lord's Prayer and the Creed ; 
but found so much ignorance in regard to spiritual 
things, that he feared little good was to be done with 
the adults of his diocese ; " but," said he, " I will try 
to lay a foundation to make the rising generation 
better." This was the origin of his zeal for the es- 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 263 

tablishment of parochial schools, of which he was so 
great a founder. 

In the Monmouth rebellion he was unwearied in 
his exertions for the relief of the poor prisoners, daily 
visiting those who were confined in Wells, and minis- 
tering to their necessities both with food and prayer ; 
all which being reported to the king, his Majesty, far 
from harbouring any jealous thoughts of him in con- 
sequence of his humane attentions to those unfortu- 
nate sufferers, which he " rightly judged proceeded 
not from disaffection to his person or government, 
but from motives of compassion to so many distressed 
brethren whom he saw in danger of perishing both 
soul and body, thanked him for what he had done." 
As a proof of his full confidence in the loyalty of Ken, 
James appointed him to attend the Duke of Mon- 
mouth, with Turner, Bishop of Ely, and prepare him 
for death. 

Burnet's invidious misrepresentations of Ken's be- 
haviour on that painful occasion have been too fully 
disproved in ' Biographia Britannica,' ' Ken's Life by 
a Layman,' and other erudite and truthful works, to 
require entering into the subject in this necessarily 
brief biography. 

The ' Exposition of the Church Catechism, or Prac- 
tice of Divine Love,' composed by Bishop Ken for his 
diocese of Bath and Wells, was published this year, and 
in consequence of its being considered too favourable 
to the doctrine of Transubstantiation, it was altered 
by him, and republished with a declaration " that he 
willingly submitted to the censure of the Church of 
England, to whose Articles he desired all his writings 



264 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

to be conformable, and he had therefore changed 
those expressions that were considered objectionable, 
as liable to be misunderstood, this work not being 
intended for disputation but devotion." He also 
published a little ' Manual of Prayer/ for the use of 
the sick who resorted to Bath to drink the waters. 

Ken's ' Seraphical Meditations ' were recommended 
to Rachel Lady Russell, by their mutual friend Dr. 
Fitzwilliam, who offered to present her with a copy. 
She replied, " that she had not yet seen the ' Sera- 
phical Meditations,' by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, 
but would be glad to do so," and thankfully accepted 
a copy of the book. 

' Hymnotheo, or the Penitent,' Ken's great poem, 
though too abstruse and deep for modern readers, was 
much admired at the time ; it contains many pas- 
sages of great beauty, and is pervaded with the sweet 
spirit which characterizes all his writings. 

At the time of the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes he had just received a fine of four thousand 
pounds ; the whole of this large sum he munificently 
devoted to the relief of the persecuted Protestant 
refugees w r ho had been rendered homeless. 

It is scarcely possible to imagine a more delicate situ- 
ation than that in which the conscientious Protestant 
Bishop of Bath and Wells was placed by the visit of his 
zealous Roman Catholic sovereign, James II., to Bath, 
attended by his staff of priests and officers of state ; 
on which occasion his Majesty caused a hasty notice 
to be published, " that he intended to exercise the 
royal gift of touching, for the cure of the evil, in the 
abbey on Sunday, after morning prayer." 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 2G5 

The alleged gift of curing this distressing malady, 
by the imposition of the royal hand, had been claimed 
and practised by every sovereign of England, good or 
bad, from the days of Edward the Confessor, on whom 
this miraculous gift was supposed to have been first 
conferred, and from him transmitted to his successors 
in the regal office, although he left no posterity. It 
was a gift exercised after the Eeformation by Queen 
Elizabeth, and in some of the old prayer-books may 
still be seen the service appointed to be used for that 
purpose, entitled "The Office of Healing." King 
James, however, chose to have a new Office pre- 
pared and published for his use, which Office was in 
all probability only the restitution of the ancient form 
used by his predecessors prior to the Eeformation. 

. Ken, who was then at Wells, was not only deeply 
annoyed but seriously perplexed when informed of 
what was about to take place in the abbey ; but he 
had no means of stopping it without creating an up- 
roar, as it was known that an immense concourse of 
people were coming in hopes of receiving a cure, or 
at least obtaining the angel of gold, which his 
Majesty was accustomed, in imitation of his royal pre- 
decessors, to bind on the arm of every patient. 

It has been erroneously related by Warner, in his 
' History of Bath,' " that Ken was present on this occa- 
sion; that Father Huddlestone denounced all here- 
tics; and that Ken, at the close of his fulmination, 
mounted the pulpit and exposed his fallacies in a 
strain of such impressive eloquence as delighted the 
congregation and confounded Huddlestone and the 
royal bigot." 



206 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

There is no foundation for this statement, which if 
correct must have created a veiy great sensation 
throughout England, and would, of course, have been 
mentioned by Ken himself in the following letter, 
which he esteemed it his duty to write to his friend 
Sancroft, relating the use the king had made of the 
abbey, and observing that he had himself considered 
it most prudent under the circumstances to remain 
wholly passive. He says : — 

" All Glory be to God. 

"My very good Lord, 

" Though I have always been very tender of 
giving your grace any trouble, yet I think it my duty, 
having this opportunity of a safe conveyance, to 
acquaint you with one particular which happened at 
Bath, and to beg your advice for the future. When 
his Majesty was at Bath there was a great healing ; 
and without any warning, unless by a flying report, 
the Office was performed in the church between the 
hours of prayer. I had not time to remonstrate, and 
if I had done so it would have had no effect but only 
to provoke; besides I found it had been in other 
churches before, and I know of no place but the 
church capable to receive so great a multitude as 
came for cure, upon which consideration 1 was wholly 
passive. But being well aware what advantage the 
Bomanists take from the least seeming compliances, 
I took occasion, on Sunday, after the Gospel, the sub- 
ject of which was the Samaritan, to discourse of 
charity ; which I said ' ought to be the religion of thd 
whole world, wherein Samaritan and Jew were to 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 267 

agree ; and though we could not open the church doors 
to a worship different from that we paid to God, yet 
we should always set them open to a common work of 
charity, because in performing mutual offices of 
charity one to another there ought to be an universal 
agreement.' 

" This was the substance of what I said upon that 
action, w 7 hich I humbly submit to your grace's judg- 
ment, and it was the best expedient I could think 
of to prevent giving scandal to our own people, and 
to obviate all the misrepresentations the Eomanists 
might make of such a connivance. 

" I am very sensible of your grace's burthen, and 
do beseech Almighty Goodness to support you under 
it. And I earnestly crave your blessing, being ambi- 
tious of nothing more than to be one of the meanest 
of your companions in the kingdom and patience of 
Jesus. My good lord, 

" Your grace's 
" Most obedient son and humble servant, 

" Tho. Bath and Wells. * 
" Aug. 26, 1687." 

From the whole tenor of this letter it is apparent 
that the circumstances described by Warner in his 
6 History of Bath,' as occurring immediately after the 
Office of Healing had been performed by the king, are 
apocryphal. 

In the following spring, Ken was appointed to 
preach the afternoon sermon in the Chapel Eoyal at 
Whitehall, on Passion Sunday, April 1st, 1688. 

* Tanner MSS., vol. xxix., Bodleian Library, Oxford. 



268 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

The morning sermon was preached by Dr. Stilling- 
fleet, and Holy Communion followed, but was in- 
terrupted by the rude breaking in of multitudes 
eager to hear the sermon to be preached in the after- 
noon by the Bishop of Bath and Wells. " In the 
morning service," records Evelyn, in his diary, " the 
latter part of that Holy Office could hardly be heard, 
or the sacred elements be distributed without great 
trouble." Crowds pressed in to secure seats, so that the 
chapel was full to overflowing before the arrival of 
the Princess Anne, who came with her attendants at 
the proper time, and took their places in the royal 
gallery. 

Her Eoyal Highness was seated on the left hand of 
the king's chair, which was empty. Prayers being 
over, the bishop ascended the pulpit, and took his text 
from the 7th chapter of Micah, verses 8, 9, 10, " Ke- 
joice not against me, mine enemy ; when I fall I 
shall arise ; when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be 
a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the 
Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He 
plead my cause and execute justice for me. He will 
bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His 
righteousness." 

The Church of England the bishop represented as 
Judah, the Eoman Catholics as the Babylonians, and 
the dissenters as the Edomites ; and lamented that 
" he had not, like Micah, the happiness of having the 
king himself for an auditor ; therefore his discourse 
might possibly be misrepresented to him, since the 
very Scripture itself might be perverted by insidious 
men." 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 269 

The thing foreseen by Ken literally came to pass. 
Distorted reports of his eloquent and forcible sermon 
were immediately carried to the king, who being 
much displeased, sent for him into his closet, and ex- 
pressed both surprise and displeasure at his having 
presumed to inculcate seditious doctrines from the 
pulpit in the very Chapel Royal at Whitehall. 

" If your Majesty had been happily present in 
your proper place, mine enemies would not have had 
the opportunity of bringing a false accusation against 
me," replied Ken, pointedly ; which implied reproach 
put the king out of countenance, and he dismissed the 
uncompromising prelate without another word. 

The misguided 'sovereign ran his reckless course, 
encouraged by the prospect of a child who, whether 
boy or girl, would be " born in the purple." He, not 
contented with the hope of the queen bringing forth 
a son, had the folly to declare it would be so, which 
provoked the partizans of his daughters Mary and 
Anne to circulate injurious doubts of the reality of 
the queen's alleged situation. 

It was on the very eve of this event, so fondly and 
proudly anticipated by their Majesties, that James 
provoked that most perilous collision with his hier- 
archy, which has already been explained in the life of 
Sancroft, by endeavouring to compel them to read and 
promulgate his royal declaration of liberty of con- 
science throughout their dioceses ; an act which, how- 
ever liberal and proper it undoubtedly would have 
been on the monarch's part, if sanctioned by parlia- 
ment, it was most unreasonable to expect the bishops 
to be the instruments of publishing. Ken, who was 



270 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

hastily summoned to Lambeth by Sancroft, to consult 
with him and other dignitaries and worthies of the 
Church of England in this emergency, courageously 
united with the primate and the bishops of Ely, Peter- 
borough, Chichester, St. Asaph, and Bristol in signing 
the petition which was drawn up by the archbishop, 
requesting his Majesty to excuse them from reading 
and promulgating his royal act for liberty of con- 
science. He was one of the six by whom that peti- 
tion was presented to King James at Whitehall. He 
was subsequently arrested and committed prisoner to 
the Tower with them, and shared in their trial and 
acquittal. 

Ken endeavoured to escape from the excitement 
of the crisis by returning as usuaFto his diocese, and 
employing himself in the regulation of his parochial 
schools and other ecclesiastical business. At last 
the preparations of the Prince of Orange for the 
invasion of England roused the king from his vain 
dreams of effecting a reconciliation between his 
realm and the see of Eome. James remembered the 
good services he had received from the bishops when 
Duke of York, and that the intrigues of the exclu- 
sionist faction to deprive him of his just place in the 
royal succession had mainly been defeated by the firm- 
ness and integrity of the hierachy. He therefore 
made an ineffectual attempt to conciliate that wise 
and virtuous fraternity by applying to them for 
counsel. Sunderland, by the royal command, wrote 
to Ken, stating that the king wished to confer with 
some of his bishops, and therefore required his at- 
tendance on the 28th of September. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 271 

Ken yielded prompt obedience to the summons, 
and came up to London, and as Sancroft was ill, 
proceeded with five other prelates to Whitehall, 
where they had audience of the king. Unfortunately 
James had altered his mind, and confined himself to 
generalities, and reminding them of their duty and 
loyalty to his person. 

Ken could not refrain from expressing his disap- 
pointment "that his Majesty should have required 
them to come so far in order to repeat to them what 
they so well understood before." James pleaded 
♦vant of time to enter into any particulars, and dis- 
missed them. 

Sancroft waited on the king the next day, to re- 
quest another audience for himself and the other 
prelates, that they might explain themselves on the 
present emergency. The 3rd of October was ap- 
pointed by the king, who received them courteously ; 
the archbishop read the paper containing the articles 
of advice they entreated him to adopt, and left it 
for his royal consideration. 

Ken, perceiving no good could be expected from 
his remaining in London, returned once more to 
Wells to resume his spiritual duties there. 

James having required the prayers of the Church 
of England, Ken read the form which the archbishop 
had prepared, " beseeching God to give Bis holy 
angels charge over the king, to preserve his royal 
person in health and safety, to inspire him with 
wisdom and justice, and to fill his heart w T ith a 
fatherly care of all his people." Also a prayer "for 
peace, and the prevention of bloodshed in the land, 



272 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

for the reconciliation of all differences and dissensions, 
and for the preservation of our holy religion, our 
ancient laws and government, and for universal 
charity in the same holy worship and communion." 

When the Prince of Orange landed at Torbay, 
Ken, receiving intelligence that he was advancing to 
Wells, immediately left the town, and wrote the 
following earnest letter, explanatory of his conduct, 
to Saner oft : — 

"All Gloky be to God. 

"May it please your Grace, 

" Before I could return any answer to the letter 
with which your grace w r as pleased to favour me, I re- 
ceived intelligence that the Dutch were just coming to 
Wells ; upon which I immediately left the town, and 
in obedience to his Majesty's general commands, took 
all my coach horses with me, and as many of my 
saddle horses as I well could, and took the shelter of 
a private village in Wiltshire, intending, if his Majesty 
had come into my country, to have waited on him and 
to have paid him my duty. But this morning we are 
told that his Majesty is gone back to London, so that I 
only wait till the Dutch have passed my diocese, and 
then resolve to return thither again, that being my 
proper station. I would not have left the diocese in 
this juncture, but that the Dutch had seized houses 
within ten miles of Wells before I went ; and your 
grace knows that I, having been a servant to the 
princess, and well acquainted with many of the 
Dutch, I could not have staid without giving some 
occasion of suspicion, which I thought it more ad- 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 273 

visable to avoid ; resolving, by God's grace, to con- 
tinue in a firm loyalty to the king, whom God direct 
and preserve in this time of danger ; and I beseech 
your grace to lay my most humble duty at his 
Majesty's feet, and to acquaint him with the reason 
of my retiring, that I may not be misunderstood. 
God of His infinite mercy deliver us from the cala- 
mities which now threaten us, and from the sins 
which have occasioned them. 

" My very good lord, 

" Your grace's very affectionate servant and brother, 

" Tho. Bath and Wells. 

"Nov.2±, 1688." 

When it was known King James had actually 
quitted the realm, his best friends were in great 
perplexity as to the line of conduct it would be best 
to adopt. Sancroft wrote to Ken and others of the 
bishops, to come to him at Lambeth with all con- 
venient haste, that they might afford him their advice 
on the present emergency. 

Ken had, however, given notice that he was about 
to hold an ordination in his cathedral, which he 
esteemed a paramount duty to any political move- 
ment ; and he also determined to keep the Christmas 
holidays as religious festivals, according to his in- 
variable custom, without any leaven of public busi- 
ness. He came up to London in the beginning of 
the new year, on being summoned to take his place 
in the House of Lords ; and when at last the peers 
concurred with the small majority of the convention 

T 



274 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

of the Commons in voting the crown to William and 
Mary, he joined with the minority in a protest against 
that resolution. 

This was Ken's last appearance as a spiritual peer 
and legislator, and his final vote. . He retired to his 
diocese, to avoid taking the oaths to the new sove- 
reigns, and occupied himself diligently in the business 
of his episcopal character. But although Ken had 
declared himself firmly resolved never to depart from 
the fealty he had sworn to King James, his inten- 
tions were suspected, not merely by his time-serving 
foes, but also by persons who ought to have known 
him better. Even his oldest and dearest friend, 
Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely, dreaded that the in- 
fluence of Dr. Hooper, the parson of Lambeth, with 
whom Ken was wont to take up his abode, might 
induce him to take the oaths to William and Mary. 
Turner expresses natural but causeless apprehensions 
to that effect, in the following letter to Sancroft : — 

" May it please youk Grace,* 

" When I took my leave yesternight, I had no 
thought of waiting upon you till yesterday se'nnight. 
But when I came home I found a letter to Mrs. 
Grigg from the Bishop of Bath and Wells, with this 
advertisement in it for me ; ' tell my friend that I will 
meet him at dinner at Lambeth upon Saturday' I 
suppose he does not know that your grace has left off 
dining publicly (as you have great reason to do). 
But since, my lord, you are pleased to give every one 
of your sons a day (as you obligingly express it), I 
* Tanner, xxviL 31. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 275 

must needs say the sooner we meet our brother of 
Bath and Wells the better ; for I must no longer in 
duty conceal it from your grace (though I beseech 
you to keep it in terms of a secret) that this very 
good man is, I fear, warping from us and the true 
interest of the Church toward a compliance with the 
new government. I received an honest letter from 
him, and a friendly one, wherein he argues wrong, to 
my understanding, but promises and protests be will 
keep himself disengaged till he debates things over 
again with us, and that he was coming up for that 
purpose. My lord Bishop of Norwich has seen such 
another letter from him to my lord of Gloucester. 
And upon the whole matter, our brother of Norwich, if 
your grace thinks fit, will meet us on Saturday ; and 
I must needs wish my lord of Chichester would be 
there to help us, if need be, for it would be extremely 
unhappy should we at this pinch lose one of our 
number. I apprehend your parson of Lambeth has 
superfined upon our brother of Bath and Wells, and if 
he lodges again at his house I doubt the consequence ; 
for which reason I will come over on Saturday morn- 
ing to invite him to my country house. 

" Dated Ascension Day." 

A report having been circulated that King James 
had executed a deed transferring Ireland to the "King 
of France, Ken, in his first surprise and indignation, 
drew up a declaration of his intention, provided this 
were indeed true, to take the oaths to the new 
sovereigns, and enjoin the clergy in his diocese to do 
the same ; but on his arrival in London he found he 



276 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

had been imposed on by a political falsehood, and 
burned the paper which, in the excitement of the 
moment, he had drawn up, and resolved to persevere 
in his determination to suffer deprivation rather than 
forfeit his allegiance. 

Dr. Gilbert Burnet, who had recently been ap- 
pointed to the bishopric of Salisbury, wrote an imper- 
tinent letter to him on his persevering refusal to take 
the oaths, in which he says: — 

" I am the more surprised to find your lordship so 
positive, because some have told myself that you had 
advised them to take that which you refuse yourself, 
and others have told me that they read a pastoral 
letter which you had prepared for your diocese, 
and were resolved to send it when you went to 
London. Your lordship, it seems, changed your 
mind there, which gave great advantage to those 
who were so severe as to say that there was some- 
thing else than conscience at the bottom. I take 
the liberty to write thus freely to your lordship, for 
I don't deny that I am in some pain till I know 
whether it is true or not." 

Ken calmly replied "that he had declared his 
mind too fully in his diocese concerning the oath to 
be misunderstood ; that the pastoral letter to which 
Burnet alluded had been prepared in consequence 
of a confident assurance that had been made to him 
of that which was not true ; and that when, on his 
arrival in town, having discovered the incorrectness 
of the statement, he had burned the paper, and ad- 
hered to his original determination." 

u If this," continues Ken, " is to be called a change 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 277 

of mind, and a change so criminal that people who 
are very discerning, and know my own heart better 
than I do myself, have pronounced sentence upon 
me, ' that there is something more than conscience 
at the bottom/ I am much afraid that some of those 
who censure me may be chargeable with more no- 
torious charges than that; whether more conscien- 
tious or not, God only is the judge. If your lordship 
gives credit to the many misrepresentations which are 
made of me, and which I, being so used to, can easily 
disregard, you may, naturally enough, be in pain for 
me ; for to see one of your brethren throwing himself 
headlong into a wilful deprivation, not only of honour 
and of income, but of a good conscience also, are 
particulars out of which may be framed an idea very 
deplorable. But though I do in many things betray 
great infirmity, I thank God I cannot accuse myself 
of any insincerity ; so that deprivation will not reach 
my conscience, and I am in no pain at all for myself. 
I perceive that, after we have been sufficiently ridi- 
culed, the last mortal stab designed to be given us is 
to expose us to the world for men of no conscience ; 
and if God is pleased to permit it, His most holy will 
be done ; though what particular passion of corrupt 
nature it is which Kes at the bottom, and which we 
gratify in losing all we have, it will be hard to de- 
termine. God grant such reproaches as these may 
not revert on the authors." 

This letter is dated October 5th, 1689. Ken was 
at that time sojourning in the house of his old friend 
the rector of Lambeth, Dr. Hooper, who had taken 
the oaths to the parliamentary sovereigns, and 



278 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

daily and hourly entreated him to condescend to the 
like compliance. Ken at length silenced him with 
these impressive words : — 

" I question not but you and several others have 
taken the oaths with as good conscience as I shall 
refuse them, and sometimes you have almost per- 
suaded me to comply by the arguments you have 
used ; but I beg you to use them no further, for 
should I be persuaded to comply, and after see reason 
to repent, you would make me the most miserable 
man in the world." 

As Ken persisted in his refusal to take the oaths, 
he was served with a writ of ejection on the 1st of 
February, 1689. Like his friend Turner, Bishop of 
Ely, he publicly protested against the legality of his 
deprivation, and expressed himself in severe tones on 
the conduct of the queen, who was at that time carry- 
ing on the government in the absence of her royal 
consort. 

" You tell me," writes Ken to the Rev. Mr. Harbin,* 
formerly chaplain to Francis Turner, the deprived 
Bishop of Ely, and now chaplain to Lord Weymouth, 
" that Mr. Pitts censures the deprived bishops for not 
asserting their rights in a public manner at their 
deprivation. If he puts me among the number he 
does me wrong ; for I, at the time, in my cathedral, 
which was the proper place, from my pastoral chair, 
publicly asserted my canonical right ; professing that 
I esteemed myself the canonical bishop of the dio- 
cese, and that I would be ready on all occasions to 

* Hound's 4 Prose Works of Ken.' Letter to the Eev. Mr. Har- 
bin, p. 44. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 279 

perform my pastoral duties. This I did when all 
were devoted to the Revolution, and waited for sugges- 
tions which they might inform of. Particularly it was 
then urged, s that I said I was the lawful pastor,' in- 
somuch that I was fain to appeal to some less biased, 
whether my word was not canonical, which I judged 
as most proper, and a word that the law was a 
stranger to. I professed, 'that not being able to 
make this declaration to the whole diocese, I made it 
virtually to all by making it in the market square." 

Mary, who had probably flattered herself with the 
hope of submission from her old chaplain, sarcasti- 
cally observed, " Dr. Ken is desirous of martyrdom in 
the nonjuring cause, but I shall disappoint him." 
She prudently took warning by her father s rash pro- 
ceedings against the seven bishops, of whom Ken 
was one of the most justly honoured, and ventured 
not to touch his person, though she rigorously exe- 
cuted her threat of ejecting him from his benefice. 

In a letter to Mrs. Grigg, Ken says, " My brother 
of Gloucester], Dr. Frampton, the nonjuring bishop, 
against whom a malevolent party had been got up, 
is, I hear, out of harm's way in Wales at the present, 
but I have heard nothing from him. 

" My best respects to my good mother, Mrs. Tur- 
ner," whom he was accustomed to call by that en- 
dearing title, " and to dear Miss (Margaret Turner), 
who, I doubt not, behaves herself with all decency, 
piety, and humility, as becomes not only the daugh- 
ter of a bishop, but a bishop in affliction." 

" Dr. Kidder is now said to be my successor, or 
rather supplanter. He is a person of whom I have 



280 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

no knowledge. God of His infinite goodness multiply 
His blessings on yourself, and on my good friends 
with you, and enable us to do and suffer His most 
holy will." 

The see of Bath and Wells was first offered to a 
faithful son of the Anglican Church, Dr. Beveridge, 
whose dialogue with his primate (Sancroft) has been 
recorded in the life of that great and good man. Dr. 
Beveridge truly followed the archbishop's advice, and 
refused that rich mitre,* which was eagerly accepted 
by Dr. Kidder, in an evil hour for himself and his 
wife. 

The whole of Ken's personal property at the time 
of his deprivation amounted only to seven hundred 
pounds, his beloved books, with which he never 
parted, a silver watch by Tompion, and a small silver 
coffee-pot. The coffee-pot and watch are still in ex- 
istence, and are mentioned by one of his biographers, 
the Bev. W. L. Bowles, as being in the possession of 
the Bev. Dr. Hawes, of Salisbury, the grandson of 
Ken's nephew, Dr. William Hawkins. 

Ken on his first deprivation retired to the house 
of his nephew, the Bev. Isaac Walton, residentiary 
prebend of Salisbury, where he found a temporary 
home, until a permanent asylum w T as offered to 
his acceptance by his former college companion, 
Thomas Thynne, whom Charles II. had raised to the 
peerage by the title of Viscount Weymouth. This 
nobleman, being possessed of a large fortune and 
liberal heart to use the blessed power which God 

* Beveridge died Bishop of St. Asaph, a comparatively humble 
benefice, in 1707. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 281 

had given him of doing good, prevailed on Ken to 
inhabit, and henceforth to consider his own, a suite of 
apartments in the upper storey of the stately mansion 
of Longleate, in Wiltshire, commanding a noble and 
extensive prospect, and far removed from the noise 
and bustle of the rest of the house. 

Ken's room at Longleate is still shown. It is a 
spacious, airy apartment, and was in his days fitted 
up with book-shelves, on which his own library was 
arranged, and many of Lord Weymouth's books ; for 
he had the use of the whole of the literary treasures 
there, to remove to his own sanctum at pleasure, and 
the society also of the Eev. Sir. Harbin, the friend, 
and formerly the chaplain, of Turner, Bishop of Ely, 
but now the family chaplain at Longleate. 

Nothing could be more sweet and pleasant than 
Ken's abode at Longleate. In order to save him 
from pecuniary cares, and at the same time to relieve 
him from any sense of dependence, Lord Weymouth 
consented to receive his seven hundred pounds, and 
allow him eighty pounds per annum, in payments of 
twenty pounds every quarter, to preclude the de- 
prived bishop from lavishing the whole at once on 
some case of distress among the nonjuring clergy, 
which haply ho might deem more urgent than his own. 

Longleate House was a congenial abode for a 
poet ; it stands in a rich, picturesque valley, sur- 
rounded by lovely wood-crowned hills. The gardens 
are still arranged in the antique style of that period ; 
probably the same walks still exist in which Ken 
and Harbin walked and spake of holy things, and 
exchanged tender recollections of departed friends. 



282 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Longleate was distant about twenty miles from 
Ken's episcopal palace at Wells, and he occasionally 
visited some of his poor old pensioners in that neigh- 
bourhood, and the village schools he had founded. 

When his own slender resources failed, Ken was 
accustomed to travel through the country to collect 
subscriptions for the support of his distressed brethren 
and their destitute families. These expeditions were 
at first performed by the deprived bishop on the old 
white nag, which had been formerly accustomed to 
carry him when he made his unostentatious pastoral 
visits # to the villages in his district, to observe how 
his clergy performed their respective duties. When 
that humble steed became from age unable to bear 
his venerable master, Ken travelled on foot, with his 
staff in his hand, making short stages, catechising 
and teaching in the schools he had established, and 
not unfrequently preaching to his old congregations 
on Sundays, by the wayside or on the village green. 

It is a well-known fact that Dryden, in his 
modernized version of Chaucer's ' Pilgrims,' intro- 
duced the portrait of Ken into the description of the 
'Good Parson.' The following lines have no place 
in the original, and were easily recognised as por- 
traying the characteristics of the nonjuring Bishop of 
Bath and Wells : — 

" Kich was his soul, tho' his attire was poor, 
As God had clothed his own ambassador, 
For such on earth his blessed Kedeemer bore. 
Of sixty years he seemed, and well might last 
To sixty more, but that he lived too fast ; 
Eefin'd himself to soul, to curb the sense, 
And made almost a sin of abstinence. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 283 

■ With eloquence innate his tongue was armed, 
Though harsh the precept, yet the preacher charmed : 
For, letting down the golden chain from high, 
He drew his audience upward to the sky. 
And oft with holy hymns he charmed their ears, 
A music more melodious than the spheres : 
For David left him, when he went to rest, 
His lyre, and after him he sang the best/' 

After this graceful compliment to Ken's sacred 
poetry, the deprived laureate enlarges on the loving 
doctrine preached by the ejected prelate, and the 
noble consistency of his conduct : — 

" The proud he tamed, the penitent he cheered, 
Nor to rebuke the rich offender feared ; 
His preaching much, but more his practice wrought, 
A living sermon of the truths he taught." 

The allusion to Ken's preferring his conscience to 
his bishopric is illustrated with such consummate 
skill, that persons unacquainted with Chaucer's 
original text have not detected the daring interpola- 
tion of these noble lines by the Jacobite poet : — 

" The tempter saw him with invidious eye, 
And, as on Job, demanded leave to try. 
He took the time when Richard was deposed, 
And high and low with happy Harry closed ; 
This prince, though great in arms, the priest withstood, 
Near though he was, yet not the next of blood. 
Had Richard unconstrained resign'd the throne, 
A king can give no more than is his own, 
The title stood entaiFd had Richard had a son. 

" Conquest, an odious word, was laid aside : 
Where all submitted, none the battle tried. 
He joined not in their choice, because he knew 
Worse might, and often did, from change ensue. 
Much to himself he thought, but little spoke ; 
And undeprived his benefice forsook. 



284 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Now, through the land his cure of souls he stretched, 

And like a primitive apostle preached ; 

With what he begged his brethren he relieved, 

And gave the charities himself received — 

Gave while he taught, and edified the more, 

Because he showed, by proof, 'twas easy to be poor. 

This brilliant is so spotless and so bright, 

He needs no foil, but shines by his own proper light." 

Ken's travels sometimes extended as far as London, 
where he occasionally visited his friend Francis 
Turner, the deprived Bishop of Ely, and Margaret 
Turner, in whom he took almost paternal interest. 
He writes to Bancroft the following record of his visit 
to Frampton, the nonjuring Bishop of Gloucester. " I 
made, as I told you I intended, a visit to our good 
brother of Gloucester, who was not a little joyed to 
see me. He is very cheerful, and being past eighty, 
does not only daily expect, but like St. Paul, longs 
for his dissolution. He has many infirmities of old 
age, but his eyes are very good, and he uses no 
spectacles. With all the tenderness imaginable he 
remembers your lordship. 

" Dr. Bull being in my way, I called upon him, 
which he took the more kindly because he thought 
we had as much abandoned him as he seems to have 
abandoned us ; and the respect I paid him I perceive 
surprised him, and the rather because he never has 
taken any notice of our deprived brethren ; but he 
has reason to value his old friends, for his new have 
little regarded him." 

This letter has no other date than September 17th, 
and is only signed " B. and W." 

It is well known that James II., after the death of 



KEN', BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 285 

Archbishop Sancroft, was desirous of nominating 
Ken to the primacy, but Ken declined the shadowy 
honour. 

Meek and mild as Ken was, and separate from all 
political excitement, his strong sense of moral justice 
impelled him to address a stern remonstrance to the 
new Archbishop of Canterbury, Tenison, in the form 
of a printed letter, on the eulogistic account of Queen 
Mary's death-bed contained in the courtly primate's 
funeral sermon for that princess ; reproaching him 
with having acted the part of an unfaithful minister, 
by crying "Peace, peace," when there was no peace, 
instead of moving her to penitence for her sins and 
prayers for pardon. 

" You knew her well," he says ; " you had full 
opportunity of representing to her her need for 
repentance, and you were no stranger to her story. 
Did you know of no weighty matters which ought to 
have touched the princess's conscience? Were you 
assured that she was in charity with all the world ? 
Did you know of no enmity between her and her 
father? no variance between her and her sister? 
Was the whole Eevolution managed with that purity 
of intention, that perfect iunocence and exact justice, 
that tender charity and that irreproachable equity, 
that there was nothing amiss in it, no remarkable 
failings that might deserve one penitent reflection? 
You cannot, you dare not say it ; and if you should, 
out of your own mouth I can condemn you ; for you 
yourself, in your serious intervals, have passed as 
severe a censure on the Revolution as any of those 
they call Jacobites could do. You have said more 



286 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

than once 'that it was all an unrighteous thing.' 
Why then did you not deal sincerely with this dying 
princess, and tell her so ? when you must be 
sensible that in steering her conscience wrong you 
shipwrecked your own. What was it, sir, that moved 
you to act thus notoriously against your own con- 
science ? Was it the fear of losing the favour of the 
Court which made you rather venture the indignation 
of Heaven, when that fear was vain ? for it had been 
no offence against the government to have persuaded 
a dying daughter to have bestowed one compassionate 
prayer on her afflicted father, had he been ever so 
unnatural ; though here the case was quite differ- 
ent, for he was one of the tenderest fathers in the 
world, .... 

"You tell us she was one whom you are well 
assured had all the duty in the world for other 
relations, which after long and laborious considera- 
tions she judged consistent with her duty to God and 
her country 

" But what do you mean, sir, by other relations ? 
Her royal father, her mother-in-law, and her brother ? 
k All the duty in the world ' is a comprehensive term ; 
but wherein, sir, did any part of her duty appear ? 
Why are you not so just to her and to yourself as to 
give us some of those expressions of filial duty which 
flowed from her ? Why do you not preserve some 
instances of her mildness and mercifulness to her 
enemies whom you know she treated as such, although 
their only crime was being her father's friends ? It 
would have been much for her honour, and convinced 
the world that the manner of her death had been in 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 287 

all respects truly Christian ; it would have been 
much for your reputation, and much for the credit of 
the Revolution, in which you are as great a zealot as 
a gainer." 

The primate did not venture to reply to these 
home strokes ; they were indeed unanswerable, and 
therefore silence in that case was wisdom. 

The government looked with an evil eye on the 
deprived bishop, and watched for occasions against 
him ; but the only pretext they could find for annoy- 
ing him was on the score of his charitable collections 
for the ejected nonjuring clergy and their destitute 
families. They cited him to answer for this misde- 
meanour before the Privy Council. 

Ken, who was at that time suffering under a severe 
and painful bodily complaint, was residing in the 
house of one of his sisters, in a secluded country 
village, when the king's messenger arrived. Ken 
immediately surrendered himself, and notwithstand- 
ing the state of his health, which rendered travelling 
both painful and dangerous at that season, agreed 
to accompany him to London without the slightest 
hesitation. He presented himself at once at the door 
of the Privy Council Chamber without being admitted. 
On the second occasion he was served with a warrant 
citing him to appear on the 28th of April, 1696. 

With the courageous firmness and moral dignity of 
a martyr, Ken appeared before the Privy Council at 
the appointed time, in his patched and threadbare 
episcopal dress, and answered all the interrogatories 
that were addressed to him by their lordships. The 
printed paper, called " A model of a fund of charity 



288 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

for the needy suffering," subscribed by the deprived 
bishops, being shown him, he was asked, " Did you 
subscribe that paper?" 

" My lords, I thank God I did," replied Ken ; 
" and it had a very happy effect, for the will of my 
blessed Eedeemer was fulfilled by it, and what we 
were not able to do was done by others ; the- hungry 
were fed, and the naked were clothed ; and to feed 
the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to visit those 
who are sick or in prison, is that plea which all your 
lordships, as well as I, as far as you have had oppor- 
tunity, must make for yourselves at the great day ; 
and that which you must all plead at God's tribunal 
for your eternal absolution, shall not, I hope, be 
made my condemnation here." 

" No one here condemns charity," said his accusers, 
" but the way you have taken to procure it. Your 
paper is illegal." 

"My lords," returned Ken, "I can plead to the 
evangelical part. I am no lawyer, but I have been 
very well assured that it is legal. The first person 
who proposed it to me was Mr. Kettlewell, that holy 
man who is now with God. I subscribed it, and went 
into the country to my retirement in an obscure 
village, where I live above the suspicion of giving 
umbrage to the government. My lords, I was not 
active in making collections in the country, but good 
people of their own accord sent me towards fourscore 
pounds, of which about one half is still in my own 
hands. 

" I beg your lordships to observe this clause in our 
paper, 'as far as in law we may; ? and to receive 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 289 

such charity as in law we may, and to distribute it is 
a thing also, I presume, which in law we may." 

It was then objected, that some persons of ill lives 
had been relieved from this money. To this charge 
Ken intrepidly rejoined : — 

11 My lords, in King James's time there were about 
a thousand or more imprisoned in my diocese who 
had been engaged in the rebellion of the Duke of 
3Ionmouth, and many of them were such as I had 
reason to believe were ill men and devoid of all 
religion, and yet for all that I thought it my duty 
to relieve them. It is well known in the diocese 
that I visited them night and day, and I thank God 
I supplied them with necessaries myself so far as I 
could, and encouraged others to do the same, and yet 
King James never found the least fault with me. 
If I am now charged with misapplying what was 
given, I beg of your lordships that St. Psul's aposto- 
lical rule may be observed, ' Against an elder receive 
not an accusation but before two or three witnesses,' 
for I am sure none can testify that against me. 
What I gave was in the country, and I gave to none 
but those who did both want and deserve it. The 
last that I gave was to two poor widows of deprived 
clergymen, one whereof was left with six, the other 
with seven small children." 

It was then objected that the paper was of the r 
nature of a brief calculated to supersede briefs issued 
by the king's authority ; and that by promulgating 
the said paper he had usurped ecclesiastical juris- 
diction. 

u 



290 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

" My lords," rejoined the deprived prelate, " I 
never heard that begging was a part of ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction ; and in this paper we are only beggars, 
which privilege I hope may be allowed us. 

" I doubt not," he added, " but your lordships may 
have had strange misinformation concerning this 
paper ; but having sincerely told you what part I 
had in it, I humbly submit myself to your lordships' 
justice. I presume you will come to no immediate 
resolution concerning me, and having voluntarily 
surrendered myself — the warrant never having been 
served on me till I had twice attended here, this 
being the third time — and my health being infirm — 
I beg this favour of your lordships, that I may return 
to my sister's house, where I have hitherto lodged, 
which is a place the messenger knows well, and that 
I may be no otherwise confined till I have received 
your lordships' final resolution." 

The council acceded to his request, and he with- 
drew ; but they sent their messenger after him to tell 
him that they required him to send a copy of his 
answers in writing. Ken complied with their demand 
as well as he could, by writing down from memory a 
minute of what had passed in the council chamber, 
prefacing it, as he did all his letters and papers, with 
this sentence, " All glory be to God," and signing it, 
" Tho. Bath and Wells, deprived." 

The government was ashamed, or more probably 
afraid, of offering him any further molestation, and 
he pursued his labours of love uninterrupted, save by 
the bodily sufferings to which his constitutional 
malady subjected him. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 291 

The Reverend John Kettlewell, to whom Ken 
alluded "as now with God," was one of the most 
celebrated of the nonjuring divines. He had drawn 
up the model of a charitable fund for the mainte- 
nance of the ejected clergy, and recommended the 
deprived bishops to issue a pastoral letter, inviting 
all good Christians to contribute to the support of 
those sufferers for conscience' sake. Kettlewell, who 
was then in declining health, died before his plan was 
acted upon. Ken attended him in his last illness, 
and administered the sacrament to him. After his 
decease, Ken read the burial service over him, wear- 
ing his lawn sleeves and episcopal robes. It was the 
last time he publicly performed any of the offices of 
the Church in this dress. 

During his weary nights of agonizing unrest, Ken 
endeavoured to improve the time by the composition 
of poems, which he entitled ' Anodynes/ which bear 
affecting testimony to his patient endurance of the 
pains with which he was at times visited. 

Ken composed an epistle dedicatory to his gene- 
rous friend, Lord Weymouth, in which some bio- 
graphical notices occur ; for he draws a comparison 
between his own adverse fortunes and the sacred 
hymnist, Gregory, one of the earliest lyric poets of 
the Greek Church, who, forced to forsake his 
ministry by the furious and factious controversies 
that even then began to corrupt the primitive 
Christian Church, retired to his own paternal inherit- 
ance, and quietly employed himself in providing 
and organizing an hymnology, both words and 
music, for the Church he dearly loved. 



292 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Ken observes to his beneficent protector, that he 
had " no cottage " wherein to seek shelter. Perhaps 
he thought of his brother Sancroft's paternal ground 
in Suffolk — for Gregory's inheritance suggested no 
such words as these : — 

t; When I, my lord, crushed by prevailing might, 
No cottage had where to direct my flight ; 
Kind Heaven me with a friend illustrious blest, 
Who gave me shelter, affluence, and rest. 
In this alone I Gregory outdo ; 
That I much happier refuge have with you ; 
•Where to my closet I to hymns retire, 
And I on this side Heaven have nothing to desire. 

" Two annual weeks* it is, and more, since pain 
Within my tender nerves began its reign ; 
Between my couch and chair my days I waste, 
And of a book have but a vapid taste. 
As thirsty deer at Mle's refreshing brink, 
E'er they forsake his bed, by snatches drink ; 
Still rolling to and fro their tremulous eyes, 
Lest the leviathanf should them surprise ; 
Thus, I at author's sip can make no stay ; 
Pain from attention forces me away — 
Pain hunting me — I seek the sacred muse — 
Yerse is the only laudanum I use." 

This narcotic had, by the physicians of Louis XIV., 
been introduced contemporaneously with the youth 
of Ken, to still the tortures of patients in acute 
pain ; but we think, by the foregoing observation, 
that Ken had found — what all invalids will sooner 
or later — that the reaction of opiates is worse than 
any disease. 

* Fourteen years. f Crocodiles. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AXD WELLS. 293 

He continues his biographical notices : — 

44 1, by a stranger from my fold exiled, 
While ray flock stray in the unguarded wild ; 
Still for my charge the tenderest care retain, 
Exposed to latitudinarian bane. 
Like Gregory of St. Paul, Id learn to teach, 
And warn in hymns all souls within my reach." 

The prosperous bishops of the dominant Revolu- 
tion are, under this autobiographical poem, figured 
in comparison with those who, in the throes and 
troubles of the primitive Christian Church, had tor- 
mented her early hymnologist, Gregory. 

" Who, with proud, noisy prelates tired, 

Whose antichristian spite his fall conspired ; 

Who had shook off their Master's badge of love, 

Who chose the serpent and despised the dove ; 

These mitred traitors the Church exposed, 

And with the world's time-serving factions closed ; 

Led the broad way to dire eternal fate. 
***** 

Then Gregory prayed for Jesus to provide 
For the dear flock he left a worthy guide ; 
A pilot learn'd, and wise, and faithful, grave, 
And fit for steerage o'er the troubled wave." 

The introduction to his grand and latest course of 
hymnology presents the lovely picture of a southern 
woodland chapel dressed with the flowers that grow- 
in the healthful air and refresh the barren soil. 

Eloquently, and with that sweet simplicity which 
is the great charm of sacred poetry, does Ken de- 
scribe this humble flower-decked chapel in the woods 
of South Anglia. Pope need not have been ashamed 
of the lines — 

" There is a vale which shady woods surround, 
Where the sweet air perfumes the barren ground ; 



294 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

No savage man or beast that place infests — 

No impious oath the conscience there molests ; 

To this a humble oratory joined, 

With greens and fragrant flowers each morning lined ; 

A bible on a little altar lay, 

Paten and chalice were of whitened clay." 

There is nothing more touching in Ken's four 
volumes of devotional poetry than these four per- 
sonal lines, written as it were on the brink of the 
grave : — 

" I, the small dolorous remnant of my days, 
Devote to hymn my great Kedeemer's praise ; 
And nearer as I draw toward heavenly rest, 
The more I love the employment of the blest." * 



* ' Works of the Eight Keverend Learned and Pious Thomas 
Ken, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells.' 4 vols. 1721. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 295 



CHAPTEE III. 

Whenever Longleate House was full of gay festive 
company Ken used to retreat to Naish House, at 
Portishead, six miles from Bristol, the residence of 
two of his old friends, maiden ladies of the name of 
Kemeyse, who had given up the world and devoted 
themselves to a life of devotion and charity, and 
were infinitely happy to relieve and cherish the 
deprived bishop, whom they greatly reverenced for 
his devoted piety, and often employed him to distri- 
bute relief to the distressed deprived clergy and their 
families. 

Ken lamented, and was desirous of healing the 
schism which the conscientious scruples of himself 
and his nonjuring brethren had unavoidably created 
in the Church of England. 

The deprived Bishop of Norwich, William Lloyd, 
wrote a very earnest letter to him on the death of 
William III., entreating him to hasten to London, 
to consult with their nonjuring brethren for their 
comfort and assistance in that conjuncture. 

But Ken, who was struggling with an agonizing 
malady, and earnestly desired to avoid all political 
agitation, replied, addressing his letter as he always 
did all communications to that prelate under the 



296 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

feminine designation of Mrs. Hannah Lloyd, intimat- 
ing " that his counsel and assistance were not worth 
a London journey, which was consistent neither with 
his purse, his convenience, health, nor inclination; 
that he had quite given over all thoughts of re- 
entering the world, and nothing should tempt him to 
any oath ; but he heartily desired an expedient could 
be found for putting an end to the present schism." 

Lloyd wrote to him in an expostulatory strain, 
commenting on some points of his letter, which had 
greatly disappointed the expectations of the more 
ardent members of their party. Ken replied again, 
briefly, but decidedly, declining to come forward in 
the manner desired. His allusion to his straitened 
means is interesting. 

"When I told you," writes he, "that a London 
journey was not agreeable to my purse, it was no 
pretence, but a real truth. I am not able to support 
the expense of it, which all that know my condition 
will easily believe. I thank God I have enough to 
bring the year about while I remain in the country, 
and that is as much as I desire. I have been often 
offered money for myself, but always refused it, and 
never take any but for to distribute, and in the 
country I have nothing now for that good use put 
into my hands." 

The learned historical antiquary, the Kev. Dr. 
Thomas Smith, one of the nonjuring clergy, being 
deprived of his fellowship and all the church prefer- 
ment which had hitherto supported him, and enabled 
him to extend his benevolence to many who had 
known better days, was in his old age reduced to 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 297 

absolute indigence. Ken from his narrow means 
occasionally relieved, and frequently wrote to cheer 
him. They were ancient friends, and maintained a 
confidential correspondence to the end of their days. 
Dr. Smith in a letter to Ken, dated London, 7th of 
June, 1707, after acknowledging a kind letter and 
generous present which he had lately received from 
him, and returning humble and hearty thanks for 
both, observes: — 

" I wish I had had the courage ten or twelve years 
ago to have acquainted you with the course of my 
studies at that time, in order to have received your as- 
sistance. Having then, and for several years after, the 
full and free use of the Cottonian Libraiy, I designed 
to have written at large the history of the life and 
reign of that unfortunate great lady, Mary Queen of 
Scotland, out of original letters and other authentic 
papers containing all the secret consultations and 
transactions of state relating to the kingdom and 
Church of Scotland at that time ; of which an im- 
perfect account is given by Archbishop Spottiswood, 
through his want of knowledge of those missives, and 
a very false, malicious, and scandalous one by those 
furious incendiaries, Buchanan and Knox. And ac- 
cordingly I began to lay in store of materials in 
order to the foundation and superstructure of that 
work, transcribing myself as much and as far as 
my weak eyes would suffer, or employing an aman- 
uensis to do this drudgery for me. But the growing 
charge and expense being above my narrow fortune, 
and my modesty not permitting me to address to 
any rich lord or gentleman, though of virtuous, honest, 



298 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

and loyal principles, as dreading a repulse, which 
would have been to me an intolerable kind of morti- 
fication, I quitted that design, though not without 
great regret, and betook myself to other studies 
which were little or no ways chargeable, and which 
lay within the compass of my own single and un- 
assisted industry. But I have repented, and I do 
still heartily repent and am troubled for that culpable 
omission. My great age, having this week entered 
upon the seventieth year of my life, my ill eyes, and 
the loss of those conveniences I enjoyed during the 
lifetime of my excellent friend Sir John Cotton, and 
my present peprlexed circumstances, putting me as 
it were out of a possibility, by rendering me altogether 
incapable of retrieving that lost game." 

All lovers of historic truth must regret it too, and 
that the noble design of this worthy documentarian 
should have been prevented by grinding poverty — 
poverty incurred for conscience' sake. 

Ken in his reply laments that the letter, having 
unfortunately been sent to Bristol after he had left, 
did not reach him so soon as it might otherwise have 
done. He had mentioned Dr. Smith's distress to 
Lord Weymouth, who had sent him ten pounds. 
" As for your design in writing the life of the Queen 
of Scots," continues Ken, " I am not sorry for your 
disappointment ; for you would have been engaged to 
have made some severe reflections, though just, on 
Queen Elizabeth, which would have given offence, she 
being the darling of the people ; and I had rather that 
the odium should fall on another than on yourself." 

In answer to this, Dr. Smith observes, " For the 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 299 

history which formerly I had designed to have 
written, I believe that I should have done good 
service to the Church and to religion in exposing the 
traitorous, the sehismatical, the seditious, and re- 
bellious principles and practices of the Scotch Pres- 
byterians ; but I should have had a tender regard to 
the fame and memory of Queen Elizabeth, whose 
glorious reign received great blemishes from her 
indulging her favourite courtiers in their sacrilegious 
invasions of the revenues of the Church, and from 
the death of the unfortunate queen, her kinswoman. 
Eagion di Stato, and the incessant, importunate, and 
united addresses of parliament and people, and 
opinions of judges and lawyers, will, I fear, be no 
good plea at God's tribunal." 

Ken in his reply tells Dr. Smith " that Lord Wey- 
mouth, with whom he had been talking on the subject 
of Smith's projected history of Mary Queen of Scots, 
had assured him he was in possession of papers which 
would justify all the severe reflections that could be 
made on Queen Elizabeth." " Yet," continues Ken, 
* considering how much an impartial relation will 
disgust the prevailing many, I wish it rather published 
by another than yourself, she is so much the heroine 
of the multitude. I doubt not but that she had many 
and great provocations, but the way she took to free 
herself will not appear excusable." 

It is no slight proof of the difficulties that impede 
the course of truth on subjects which are connected 
with political controversy, when w r e find even the 
conscientious Ken dissuading his impoverished friend, 
Dr. Smith, from writing a truthful history of the 



300 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

calumniated Mary Queen of Scots, lest it should 
offend popular prejudices, that were so passionately- 
entwined with the memory of Queen Elizabeth, and 
draw attacks on him for unveiling the dark side of 
the heroine of the ignorant ; while at the same time 
apprising him of the discovery of documents which, 
he had been told by his noble patron, would fully 
justify the view he was disposed to take of that highly 
eulogised sovereign. Ken himself had probably 
been taught in childhood to venerate Elizabeth as a 
nursing mother of the Keformed Church, which doubt- 
less she was an instrument in the hand of God for 
establishing in this realm. 

Ken was on a visit to his nephew, Dr. Walton, at 
Salisbury, during the autumn of 1703, when the tre- 
mendous storm occurred which caused the death of 
Bishop Kidder and his wife, who were both killed by 
an antique stack of chimneys falling that awful night 
through the roof of their bedchamber — the same pre- 
viously occupied by Ken, whose ejection from the 
bishopric saved him from a death horrible for human 
nature to contemplate. 

Ken's letters to Lloyd, the nonjuring Bishop of 
Norwich, on the subject of this storm, are peculiarly 
interesting. After his usual preface, 

"All Gloky be to God," 
he thus commences : — - 

" My good Lord and dear Brother, 

" I return you my thanks for both yours. I have 
no news to return, but that last night there was here 
the most violent wind that ever I knew. The house 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 301 

shaked all the night ; we all rose and called the family 
to prayers, and by the goodness of God we were safe 
amidst the storm. It has done a great deal of hurt 
in the neighbourhood to all about, which we cannot 
yet hear of; but I fear it has been very terrible at 
sea, and that we shall hear of many wrecks there. 
Blessed be God who preserved us. I hope your 
lordship and your family have suffered no harm, and 
should be glad to hear you are well. I beseech God 
to keep us in His holy fear." 

This letter is dated November 27. Two days later 
Ken had heard the awful tragedy which had occurred 
in the episcopal palace at Wells, for on the 29th he 
again writes to his brother in adversity, the deprived 
Bishop of Norwich : — 

" The storm on Friday night, which was the most 
violent, I mentioned in my last ; but I then did not 
know what happened at Wells, w T hich was much shat- 
tered ; and that part of the palace where Bishop Kid- 
der and his wife lay was blown down in the night, and 
they were both killed and buried in the ruins, and 
dug out towards morning. It happened on the very 
day of the cloth fair, when all the country were spec- 
tators of the deplorable calamity, and soon spread the 
sad story. God of His infinite mercy deliver us from 
such dreadful surprises. I am assured that no one, 
either in the palace or the whole town, besides them 
had any hurt. God keep us in His holy fear, and our 
dwellings in safety !" 

In his next letter to the Bishop of Norwich, he 
says : — 



302 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

" Blessed be God who preserved us both in the late 
storm ; it is a deliverance not to be forgotten. I 
hear of several persons who solicit for my diocese, 
whom I know not, and I am informed that it is 
offered to my old friend the Bishop of St. Asaph,* and 
that it is declined by him. For my own part, if times 
should have changed, I never intended to return to 
my burden, but I much desire to see the flock in 
good hands, and I know none better to whom I may 
entrust it than his; for ^hich reason I write to him 
this post to let him know my desire that he should 
succeed, with which I thought good to acquaint your 
lordship." 

In his letter of the 18th of December, Ken again 
alludes to the subject of his late preservation from 
the fury of the memorable storm which had immo- 
lated the intrusive successor to his diocese. 

" I think I omitted," he observes to the Bishop of 
Norwich, " to tell you the full of my deliverance in 
the late storm ; for the house being searched the day 
following, the workmen found that the beam which 
supported the roof over my head was shaken out to 
that degree that it had but half an inch hold, so that 
it was a wonder it could hold together ; for which 
signal and particular preservation God's holy name 
be ever praised ! I am sure I ought always thank- 
fully to remember it." 

In this awful storm the Eddystone Lighthouse was 
destroyed ; twelve ships of the line in the royal navy 
were wrecked, besides many vessels in the merchant 
service ; colliers, and fishing boats perished at sea, 

* Not Lloyd, but Dr. Hooper. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AXD WELLS. 303 

and the general computation was that more than a 
thousand lives were lost. 

Ken pursued his journey to Xaish House, where he 
spent several quiet weeks, while the queen was soli- 
cited on every side for the appointment of the bishop- 
ric of Bath and Wells. 

Anne sent for Dr. Hooper, and told him she 
intended the see for him, but he nobly requested her 
Majesty to restore it to Bishop Ken. She thanked 
Hooper for mentioning it, and ordered a nobleman to 
tell Ken he might return to his see without any oaths 
being required of him. 

Two great obstacles to Ken s resumption of his for- 
mer place on the episcopal bench were removed — 
James II. and "William III. were both dead. Queen 
Anne's affection to the Church of England was warm 
and genuine, so that no conscientious objection could 
be felt to her supremacy. She was both a nursing 
mother and a generous benefactress to the Church. 
Yet he firmly but gratefully declined her invitation 
to resume the bishopric of Bath and Wells, alleging 
his age and bodily infirmities as the reason of his 
negation. 

Hearing soon after that the see had been offered 
to his friend Dr. George Hooper, then Bishop of St. 
Asaph, and that Hooper had refused to accept it out 
of feelings of delicacy towards himself, Ken addressed 
the following noble letter to his conscientious friend, 
in order to overcome his scruples ; feeling that Hooper 
could not be otherwise than a blessing to his beloved 
diocese, for which he had always cherished the pater- 
nal affection of a true shepherd. 



304 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

11 All Glory be to God. 

"My very good Lord, 

" I am informed that you have had an offer of 
Bath and "Wells, and that you have refused it, which 
I take very kindly, because I know you did it on my 
account ; but since I am well assured that the diocese 
cannot be happy to that degree in any other hands 
than in your own, I desire you to accept of it, and I 
know that you have a prevailing interest to procure 
it. My nephew and our little family here present 
your lordship their humble respects, and will be over- 
joyed at your neighbourhood. 

"I told your lordship long ago at Bath how 
willing I was to surrender my canonical claim to a 
worthy person, but to none more willingly than to 
yourself. 

" My distemper disables me from the pastoral duty, 
and had I been restored, I declared always that I 
would shake off the burden and retire. I am about 
to leave this place, but if need be, your archdeacon 
can tell you how to direct to me. My best respects 
to your good family. God keep us in His holy 
fear! 

"My good lord, 

" Your lordship's most affectionately, 
" T. B. and W. 

"Dee. 6th." 

Hooper, on receiving this tender and earnest 
entreaty from his apostolical friend, the deprived 
bishop, ceased to reject the offered diocese which 
courted his acceptance. The following letter, which 



KEX, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 305 

Ken addressed to his friend and worthy successor, is 
a touching evidence of the paternal interest with 
which he continued to regard his flock after so many 
years of banishment : — 

"My VERY GOOD LOED, 

"The last post brought me the news I earnestly 
expected, and which your lordship's letter gave me 
hope of, and I heartily congratulate the diocese of 
Bath and Wells on your translation ; for it was the 
good of the flock and not my friendship for yourself 
which made me desire to see you in the pastoral chair, 
where I know you will zealously 'contend for the 
faith once delivered to the saints,' which in these 
latitudinarian times is in great danger to be lost. 

" I could easily foresee that by my concern for you 
I should incur the displeasure of some of my breth- 
ren ; but this is not the first instance in which I have 
dissented from them, and never had cause to repent of 
it ; and the good of the diocese supersedes all other 
considerations. I have another wish for the good of 
the diocese you are to leave, and it is that Dr. 
Edwards might succeed you there, though he is a 
person I do not know so much as by sight. 

" My best respects to your good lady, whose pains 
I can the more tenderly condole from what I feel 
daily myself. God keep us in Bis holy fear! 

" My good lord, 

" Your lordship's most affectionately, 

" T. K. 
"Dec. 20th: 9 



306 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

After the consecration of his friend Hooper to the 
see of Bath and Wells, Ken, for the first time, dis- 
continued his episcopal style and title which he had 
hitherto persevered in using, and now signed himself 
" Thomas, late Bishop of Bath and Wells." In the 
poetical dedication of ' Hymns to the Attributes/ 
Ken addresses these lines to Hooper : — 

" Forced from my flock, I daily saw with tears 
A stranger's ravage two Sabbatic years ;* 
But I forbear to tell the dreadful stroke, 
Which freed my sheep from their Erastian yoke. 
But Heaven was superfluently kind 
In sending them a pastor to my mind, 
In whom my spirit feels the like repose 
As old Valerian when he Austin chose." 

Dr. Hooper was equally acceptable to the diocese, 
from which he never would remove, though offered 
the bishopric of London on the death of Compton, 
and subsequently the archbishopric of York, on 
the decease of Archbishop Sharp, but he refused 
both. 

Ken's resignation of his canonical title of Bishop 
of Bath and Wells, in favour of Dr. Hooper, exposed 
him to many bitter attacks from his own party ; for it 
was treated by the more violent among them as an 
unworthy concession to the powers that be. It was 
to no purpose that he mildly explained that his 
desire to heal the schism, which was producing ruin- 
ous effects on the Church, rendered it expedient that 
he should set an example of conceding rights that 

* A Sabbatic year comprehends the period of seven years. Dr. 
Kidder had occupied the see of Bath and Wells fourteen years. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 307 

were merely nominal, for the sake of securing the 
services of an unexceptional prelate for his beloved 
diocese. He was tormented beyond measure by the 
ignorant, narrow-minded zealots, who even made use 
of the name of his old friend, the nonjuring Bishop 
of Norwich, to annoy him, by circulating provoking 
animadversions which they pretended had been made 
on his cession. These troublesome busybodies finally 
succeeded in interrupting the long friendship that had 
been for so many years established between these 
holy brothers in adversity, so that Ken suffered him- 
self to be provoked into writing angrily to his deprived 
friend, upbraiding him with his supposed unkindness 
in making such unjust reflections on his conduct. 

More than one unkind letter was exchanged 
between them, but a little explanation served to set 
matters right, and produced mutual apologies and 
hearty reconciliation. 

Queen Anne, by the recommendation of her lord 
treasurer, Godolphin, settled a pension of two hundred 
pounds per annum on Ken. His surprise, and the 
grateful feeling it excited, are thus expressed in his 
reply to the letter of Hooper, communicating the 
royal bounty. 

"All Glory be to God. 

" My good Loed, 

" Your lordship gave a wonderful surprise when 
you informed me that the queen had been pleased 
to settle a very liberal pension on me. I beseech 
God to accumulate the blessings of both lives on her 
Majesty for her royal bounty to me, so perfectly free 



308 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

and unexpected ; and I beseech abundantly to reward 
my lord treasurer, who inclined her to be thus 
gracious to me, and to give him a plentiful measure 
of wisdom from above. 

" My lord, let it not shock your native modesty if 
I make this just acknowledgment, that though the 
sense I have of her Majesty's favour in the pension is 
deservedly great, yet her choosing you for my suc- 
cessor gave me much more satisfaction ; as my con- 
cern for the eternal welfare of the flock exceeded all 
regard for my own temporal advantage, being so 
truly conscious of my own infirmities as I am 
assured of your excellent abilities, of which the 
diocese, even at your first appearance, signally reaped 
the fruits. 

" God, of His infinite goodness, keep us in His re- 
verential love, and make us wise for eternity. 

" My lord, 
" Your lordship's most affectionate friend and 

" Brother, 
" Tho. Ken, late Bath and Wells. 

" June 1th, 1704." 

The pension now regularly paid to Ken by Queen 
Anne entirely relieved him from the pecuniary 
cares that had for so many years beset him. He 
was now enabled to indulge his benevolent inclina- 
tions to extend relief to many cases of distress ; but 
even then his charity occasionally outran his means, 
and compelled him to resort to his old plan of solicit- 
ing others to co-operate with him in extending aid in 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 309 

cases of necessity when his own supplies failed. He 
writes with affectionate freedom to his successor in 
the episcopate at Bath and Wells, his dear familiar 
friend, Dr. Hooper, for wine for a sick patient in whom 
both were interested, and who had previously been 
assisted by Hooper : — 

" I have sent my servant to beg of your lordship 
two or three bottles of canary for a sick friend, 
which the doctor commends to him. Your lord- 
ship gave the whole family so seasonable and 
sensible a consolation, that it revived the whole 
family, and it gave me very great satisfaction to see 
my friend do an act of so great, so free, and so 
well-timed a charity. The good man is full of 
resignation to the Divine will, and has an humble 
confidence of a blessed immortality. He has slept 
this night as well as could be expected, and is asleep 
now, and his pulse, which for some days was unper- 
ceivable, is now become tolerable. He has strength 
to turn in his bed, so weak as he is, and to expecto- 
rate, and is sensibly mended, and I hope God will 
restore him, which will be a blessing next to miracu- 
lous. He has his understanding perfectly. 

" My best respects to your good lady, and to the 
three young gentlewomen, and to Mr. Guilford. 

" I beseech God to make us wise for eternity. 

" My good lord, 
" Your lordship's most affectionate friend and 

" Brother, 
"Tho. Ken, late Bath and Wells."* 

* Bound's * Prose Works of Ken/ 80. 



310 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Ken had been much let and hindered in his 
friendly and charitable journeys by the death of his 
old white horse, and when Dr. Hooper, who saw 
with much concern how unfit he was to perform the 
part of a pedestrian, even for the shortest stage, pre- 
vailed on him to purchase another, it does not appear 
to have been a very sturdy or serviceable steed. 

"I am now at Sarum," writes Ken, to the nonjur- 
ing Bishop of Norwich, " where I have been detained 
by a lame horse, but I hope to be gone, God willing, 
to-morrow, and to be at Naish on Saturday or 
Monday, there to spend my Lent."* Here the vener- 
able Christian forgets to dwell on the trouble and 
inconvenience the disability of his steed had caused 
him, and expresses the comfort he felt at his worthy 
choice of a successor to his episcopate. 

" You cannot imagine," pursues he, " the universal 
satisfaction expressed for Dr. Hooper coming to my 
see ; and I make no doubt but that he will rescue 
the diocese from the apostacy * from the faith once 
delivered to the saints ' which at present threatens us, 
and from the spirit of latitudinarianism, which is a 
common server of all heresies imaginable ; and I 
am not a little satisfied that I have made the best 
provision for my flock which was possible in our 
present circumstances. God keep us in His holy 
fear." 

This letter is dated February 21st. He writes 
again on the 27th, to express his commiseration of 
the paroxysms of pain his deprived brother of Nor- 
wich had been suffering from some bodily complaint, 

* Bound's ' Prose Works of Ken,' 81. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 311 

the particulars of which had been communicated in 
a letter Ken found waiting for him at Naish, where 
his arrival had been delayed for several days by the 
aforesaid lame horse. 

On the deaths of Frampton of Gloucester, in 1708? 
and subsequently Lloyd of Norwich, January 1st, 
1710, Ken was left the last survivor of the deprived 
bishops. 

A few days after the death of Lloyd he received 
a letter from Dodwell, one of the leaders of the non- 
juriug churchmen, suggesting the propriety of filling 
the sees of the deceased prelates, and requesting him 
to declare whether he so far claimed his rights as to 
justify the continuance of separate communions on 
his account. 

" In that you are pleased to ask me whether I 
insist on nw episcopal claims," replied Ken, " my 
answer is that I do not ; and that I have no reason 
to insist, in regard that I made cession to my 
present most worthy successor, who came into the 
fold by my free consent and approbation. As for 
any clandestine claim, my judgment was always 
against it, and I had nothing to do with it, foreseeing 
that it would perpetuate a schism, which I found 
very afflicting to good people scattered in the 
country, where they could have no divine offices per- 
formed. I was always tender of the peace of the 
Church, especially in this age of irreligion." 

To Eobert Xelson, who also wrote to ask the like 
question, similar answers were returned by Ken ; on 
which both Dodwell and Kelson went to church, with 
many other nonjurors, on the 26th of February, the 



812 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

first Sunday in Lent This important step towards 
healing the schism which for upwards of twenty 
years had rent the reformed Church of England was 
a soothing nunc dimittis to Ken. Up to the beginning 
of that year he had continued his apostolical labours 
in visiting and catechising his schools, regardless of 
weariness and bodily suffering ; but the state of his 
health required him to go to Bristol for the benefit 
of the hot wells. He remained there all that 
summer and part of the autumn without experienc- 
ing much, benefit, 

In November he removed to Leweston, near Sher- 
borne, in Dorsetshire, the seat of his friend, the 
Hon. Mrs. Thynne, sister-in-law to Lord Weymouth. 
There he was stricken with dead palsy, which 
disabled one side, and confined him to his chamber 
till March, 1711, when he determined to»go to Bath, 
under the idea that the waters there might restore 
him, though he was now afflicted with dropsy. 
Neither the remonstrances of his physicians, who 
perceived how unfit he was to undertake the journey, 
nor the persuasions of his kind hostess, could prevail 
on him to give up the attempt. Mrs. Thynne sent 
him in her own coach as far as Longleate, where he 
paused to rest on the Saturday, March 9th. He 
occupied himself that evening in arranging his papers, 
and burning many which he did not consider it 
desirable to keep. The following day he was not so 
well. On the Monday he was entirely confined to 
his bed, which he never left again. 

Dr. Mere wet her of Bath, and Dr. Bevison of 
Devizes, attended him. His case was hopeless from 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 313 

the first. Iii answer to his inquiry, " how long he 
had to live," they told him " not more than two or 
three days." 

* God's will be done," was his reply. 

When he perceived his last hour drew nigh, he put 
on his shroud, which had been prepared for years and 
was always at hand, and prepared himself with holy 
calmness for death. 

He appeared desirous to send a message to his 
Mend Bishop Hooper, by his servant, but his speech 
had ceased to be intelligible. 

He dozed much the last day or two before he died, 
and peacefully departed this life on the 19th of 
March, 1711, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. 

He bequeathed all his books, save those of which 
his lordship had duplicate, to his friend and bene- 
factor, Lord Weymouth, to whom he expressed the 
most lively gratitude for his signal kindness. 

The proceeds of a legacy, which a faithful friend 
had left him a short time before his death, enabled 
him to testify his regard to a few dear ones, to whom 
he would otherwise have been unable to bequeath 
anything but his loving remembrance. His will con- 
tains, above all, the following noble confession of 
his faith : — 

"As for my religion, I die in the Holy Catholic 
and Apostolic faith professed by the whole Church 
before the disunion of East and West; more 
particularly, I die in the communion of the Church 
of England, as it stands distinguished from all Papal 
and Puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the 
doctrine of the Cross." 



314 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Ken always carried a Greek Testament in his 
bosom; it is still in existence, and the fact that it 
opens of itself at the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, 
testifies that his favourite study was on the resurrec- 
tion. 

He was buried March 21st, two days after his 
death, under the chancel window of the church of 
Frome, Selwood. The remains of the deprived bishop 
were attended to the grave by true-hearted mourners ; 
the children from the village school he had established 
and taught followed in silence and tears. 

His funeral was solemnized according to the ritual 
of the Church of England, and took place at dawn of 
day. Just as the last spade of earth was cast on the 
grave the sun rose, and the children spontaneously 
broke forth with one voice into that holy and familiar 
strain, "Awake, my soul, and with the sun," from 
the Morning Hymn of the departed prelate, which 
thus appropriately closed his obsequies. A plain 
iron grating, shaped like a bier, surmounted with a 
recumbent mitre and pastoral staff, marks his resting- 
place. Some generous persons in 1844 enclosed it 
within a Gothic railing. 

A quotation from the original and touching lines 
with which Lord Houghton, better known to the 
lovers of poetry and moral justice as the Honourable 
Monckton Milnes, M.P., has commemorated his visit 
to the grave of Bishop Ken, cannot be otherwise than 
acceptable to our readers. 

" Let other thoughts, where'er I roam, 
Ne'er from my memory cancel, 
The coffin-fashioned tomb at Frome 
That lies behind the chancel ; 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 315 

11 A basket-work, where bars are bent, 
Iron in place of osier ; 
And shapes above that represent 
A mitre and a crosier. 

" Those signs of him that slumbers there 
The dignity betoken ; 
Those iron bars a heart enclose 
Hard bent, but never broken. 

11 This form portrays how souls like his, 
Their pride and passions quelling, 
Preferr'd to earth's high palaces 
This calm and narrow dwelling. 

61 There with the churchyard's common dust 
He loved his own to mingle ; 
The faith in which he placed his trust 
Was nothing rare or single. 

" Yet laid he to the sacred wall, 
As close as he was able ; 
The blessed crumbs might almost fall 
Upon him from God's table. 
* * * * 

" But preciously tradition keeps 
The fame of holy men ; 
So there the Christian smiles or weeps 
For love of Bishop Ken." 

Ken's epitaph, written during his life, for himself, 
with his own hands, is as follows : — 

"May the here-interred Thomas, late Bishop of 
Bath and Wells (uncanonically deprived for not 
transferring his allegiance), have a perfect consum- 
mation of bliss both in body and soul at the Great 
Day, of which God keep me always mindful." 

William Hawkins claimed the privilege of editing 
the posthumous papers of Ken, from verbal leave 
given him by the author at Leweston. He had no 



316 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

other authority, as he expresses himself in his epistle 
dedicatory to Thomas, the second Lord Weymouth, 
"than his own sacred promise'' that such was the 
case. 

They were printed very incorrectly in 1721, with 
an epistle dedicatory to Thomas, the second Lord 
Weymouth, great nephew to Ken's old friend and 
benefactor, and a loving friend himself to his uncle's 
honoured guest, as we may gather from the preface. 
The first edition, avowedly printed from manuscript, 
was published for William Hawkins, Esq., and sold 
by John Wyatt, at the Eose, St. Paul's Churchyard. 
Hawkins was a Temple barrister and nephew to Ken. 
The wish of Ken's heart was fulfilled by the love and 
reverence with which the Anglican Church, and even 
those of its careless and time-serving supplanters, 
welcomed these four volumes ; so exquisite is the 
lustre of the gems that radiate through the heaps of 
incorrectness or of printer's mistakes with which they 
are loaded, owing to the inexperience of his editor. 
Very soon the Georgian Church lamed his hymns. 
The Morning Hymn, for instance, is reduced to four 
verses. Supposing fourteen verses too long, wHo would 
leave in the dust of ages thoughts and poetry so pre- 
cious? Who would not use them in a separate sacred 
lyric to hymn the Most High with change of thought 
and words ? Surpassing beauty there is in the omitted 
portion of Ken's Morning Hymn. Let us remember 
they were composed for the morning invocation of a 
school then the most celebrated in England, as the 
Alma Mater of the best ornaments of our Church. 
Why should they not be restored to their original 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 317 

intent ? Here are many allusions that refer to the 
training in piety and purity a young fold of Christian 
children ; not the denizens of dens full of wolf-cubs, 
as the public schools of the last century too often were. 

Omitted Verses of the Morning Hymn, by Bishop Ken. 
" All praise to Thee who safe has kept, 
And hast refreshed me while I slept ; 
Grant, Lord, when I from death awake, 
I may of endless life partake. 

" Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart, 
And with the angels bear a part, 
Who all night long unwearied sing 
High praises to the Eternal King.* 

" I wake, I wake, ye heavenly quire ! 
May yonr devotion me inspire, 
That I, like you, my time may spend, 
Like you, may on my God attend. 

" May I, like you, in God delight, 
Have all the day my God in sight ; 
Perform like you my Maker's will ; 
Oh, may I never more do ill ! 

"Heaven is, dear Lord, where'er Thou art; 
Oh, never from my mind depart ; 
For, to my soul 'tis hell to be 
But for one moment void of Thee. 

" Lord, I my vows to thee renew, 
Dispel my sins as morning dew ; 
Guard my first springs of tliougM and will^ 
And with Thyself my spirit fill. 

" Direct, control, suggest this day, 
All I design, or do, or say ; 
That all my powers and all my might 
In Thy sole glory may unite." 



* The exquisite melody of this verse sometimes finds it a voice in 
our Church. 

t This beautiful line proves the truth of the purpose for which 
Ken composed this hymn. 



318 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Our Church lyrist celebrated the saints' days, 
remembering the communion with saints is enjoined 
by our Church, but keeping the skilful pilot's hand 
on the helm, and thus steering clear of worship- 
ping those blessed fellow-creatures. The first of our 
specimens has an innocent pretty quaintness, won- 
derfully pleasing to those children to whom it has 
been read. 

On God's Holy Innocents. 

" Bless'd Jesus, on the babes who bled 
For His sole sake, high favours shed ; 

By happy deaths secure, 

From ills they might endure ; 
Of losing Heaven from danger freed, 
To Heaven sent with early speed. 

" Those guardians, children sent to aid, 
Came down like doves array'd ; 

(Their innocence to paint) 

Each took his infant saint 
'Twixt their soft wings, to Heaven they swam, 
Like cygnets on the feather'd dam." 

St. Stephen, the first Christian Deacon and Martyr. 

"I sing, my God, the saint this day, 
Who led the suffering host the way, 
To rise to glory most sublime — 
The martyr prime. 

" He, joy was wont, for sinners' sake, 
In humble charities to take ; 
St. Stephen kept our Lord in view — 
And pattern drew. 

" In his Lord's love this saint up train 'd, 
Would humble deacon be ordain'd ; 
To human woes still condescend — 
And poor attend. 



KEN, BISIIOr OF BATH AND WELLS. 319 

" May I, my God, by faith have sight 
Of Jesus standing on Thy right ; 
And ready, when this world I leave — 
Me to receive. 

" May I, like him, the influence feel 
Of faith, love, patience, courage, zeal ; 
Forgive my foes, for Heaven prepare — 
And die in prayer/' 

St. James, the first Bishop. 
" James on the cross saw Jesus dead, 
And made a vow to eat no bread 
Till the Lord risen he beheld ; 
And when our Lord death's shades dispell'd, 
To this disciple early he appear'd, 
Dissolv'd his vow, and his sad votary cheer 'd. 

" Bless'd Peter, by the angel freed, 
Dispatch'd a messenger with speed, 
Who should to holy James relate 
The opening of the iron gate. 
He, to the mother church due deference taught, 
And the first news was to her bishop brought. 

" In the first synod James alone — 
Who sat on the Arch-shepherd's throne — 
The last decisive vote express'd, 
In which the Christian saints all acquiesc'd. 
'Twas Jesus' rule, not Peter's, which then sway'd, 
And Peter to bless'd James submission made. 

'• Oh, happy saint in Jesus' chair, 

Of the Lord's grace giv'n liberal share ; 

You from bless'd Jesus' borrow'd light, 

Shined an example bright ; 
E'en Jews your righteousness would own, 
You, by their name of James the Just were known. 

" When at the Paschal feast, your eye 

Could the whole Jewish race espy — 

You on the temple took your stand, 

Jesus you preach'd to all the land ; 

Till by a bitter, hell-directed blow, 

You were forced headlong on the ground below." 
* * * * * 



320 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

St. Philip and St. James. 
" Bless'd James and Philip on one day, 
When martyr d, met upon the way, 
In ether, as they soared to bliss, 
They join'd in holy kiss ; 
The bless'd receiv'd them in embraces dear, 
And joy was doubled o'er the heavenly sphere. 

" We double praises, too, oh Lord ! this day, 
To Thee, for thy two pillars, pay ; 

For strength — the faith in Asia gain'd, 

Where Philip saving truths explain'd ; 
For James — by saints most worthy judg'd to be 
First bishop of the first establish'd see. 

" In preaching Philip spent his might, 
And little leisure had to write ; 

James a divine epistle penn'd, 

Both had the same salvific end. 
May we, like them, Thy sacred truth embrace, 
With strength of faith and stablishment of grace." 

The ardent wish of Ken's heart, to become the 
Hymnologist of the Anglican Church, was fulfilled. 
Many of those sweet and holy songs from the gifted 
musician and lyrist, Charles Wesley, were inspired by 
the study of these four volumes. His hymn of the 
Kenewed Heart, often sung with infinite delight in 
the Church of England, is almost a transcript from 
Ken's hymn on the same subject. 

The last composition of our saintly prelate may 
be considered as his Death Hymn. It is the most 
touching of the collection he called ' The Anodyne,' 
with which he raised his soul above the tortures of the 
body, agonized with the lingering dreadful disease of 
stone. How long he had to endure these sufferings * 
he has recorded as the " final friend " drew nigh. 

* Twenty years. 



KEN, BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS. 32 L 

" Two lustres* now are well-nigh flown, 
Since pain has my familiar grown ; 

She haunts me day and night — 

Wounds me with sting and bite ; 
She on my tender membranes preys, 
No medicine can reach her where she stays." 

Here are some of the latest thoughts that engaged 
his mind : — 

" Pain keeps me waking in the night, 

I longing lie for morning's light ; 
Methinks the tardy sun 
Forgets he this day's course must run. 

Oh, heavenly torch ! why this delay 

In giving us our wonted day ? 
* * * * 

" I feel my watch, 1 1 tell the clock, 

I hear each crowing of the cock ; 

Sweet ease, oh whither art thou fled ? 

With one short slumber ease my head. 
" My curtain oft I draw away, 

Eager to see the morning ray ; 

But when the morning gilds the skies, 

The morning no relief supplies. 

a God's favours darkest clouds dispel, 
By pains He frights our souls from hell, 
Melts us to humble tears, 
And His true love each pang endears ; 
When, gracious God, I strive to please, 
I never want for light or ease. 

" Sun, mend not then for me your pace, 

But at your will defer your race ; 
I am refreshed with light, 
Than you a thousand times more bright ; 

For when towards chaos you decline, 

I shall have light and joy divine !" 

* Twenty years. 

t This watch was constructed so as to enable him to ascertain the 
time by feeling the works round the rim. 

Y 



LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 



DE. WILLIAM LLOYD, 

. BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH, OF LICHFIELD AND COVENTRY, AND OF 
WORCESTER. 

William Lloyd belonged to an ancient Welsh 
family ; he was the grandson of David Lloyd, Esq., of 
Henblas, Isle of Anglesea— his father w r as Richard 
Lloyd, B.D., and rector of Tilehurst and Sunning, in 
Berkshire. William was born at the rectory, August 
18, 1628. He had no other tutor but his father, who 
made him an infant prodigy of learning. His pro- 
gress at eleven years old in Latin and Greek, and 
even Hebrew, was something marvellous. His father 
had him entered as student at Oriel College, Oxford, 
in the Lent term, 1639 ; the year following he ob- 
tained a scholarship at Jesus College, that resort of 
Welsh students, when be had only attained the age 
of twelve years. He rivalled the fame of Wolsey as 
boy-bachelor, for he was admitted as Bachelor of Arts 
at Jesus, October 25, 1642, when he had only just 
entered his fourteenth year. 

Scarcely had William Lloyd snatched his early 
degree when troublesome times ensued. Oxford was 
garrisoned for King Charles I. Many , a young 
graduate threw off cap and gown, and fought for 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 323 

King, for Church, and Alma Mater. " We used to 
relieve the king's night-watch by bands volunteered 
among the students and graduates when the royalist 
soldiery were o'er-wearied. Many a winter's night 
have I passed in the trenches," says Dr. Arthur 
Bury, Rector of Exeter College, when some years 
afterwards there was an insurrection in his college 
against the visitation of Bishop Jonathan Trelawny. 

William Lloyd was neither old enough or loyal 
enough to care for any of these things. He renewed 
his study of Oriental languages with his father, and 
soon after became tutor to the children of William 
Backhouse, Esq., of Swallowfield, a celebrated judicial 
astrologer and alchemist. 

When the Presbyterians and Independents had 
got their own way at Oxford, young; William Llovd 
returned to his college. He took, in 1646, the de- 
gree of Master of Arts, and was ordained by Dr. 
Skinner, Bishop of Oxford, a very loyal divine. Yet 
he accepted the rectory of Bradfield, when Dr. 
Pordage was expelled from that living by the Pres- 
byterian committee sitting at Oxford. Lloyd gave 
their " triers," as they were called, complete satis- 
faction, and was presented to the living by his friend, 
Elias Ashmole, Esq. But as disputes were raised 
regarding the right of Ashmole to the patronage, 
young Lloyd thought it most prudent to resign the 
preferment. 

Ashmole was subsequently respectably connected 
with literature, as author of the ' History of the 
Order of the Garter,' but at this period chiefly noted 
for his magical, astrological, and alchemical pursuits. 



321 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

His intimacy with the learned young orientalist of 
Jesus College had more influence over the mystical 
bias of that person's mind than has hitherto been 
noticed. 

One fact is certain, that Lloyd contrived to foresee 
very well all that was most profitable for his own 
interest. While he remained on excellent terms with 
the Calvinists, he received priest's orders from Dr. 
Brownrigg, the deprived Bishop of Exeter, in 1656. 
The same year he went to Wadham College as go- 
vernor to John Backhouse, Esq., the eldest of his 
young pupils, who was entered there as a gentleman 
commoner. And at Wadham the Bestoration found 
William Lloyd. 

Then commenced that extraordinary shower of 
preferments which continued to fall on him for forty 
years. The first was the prebend of Bipon ; then the 
prebends of Woodford and Willsford, in the cathe- 
dral of Salisbury, and the presidentiary of Sarum 
followed. He wrote at this period some remarkable 
tracts against Popery. He became Dean of Bangor, 
Vicar of St. Mary's, Beading, Archdeacon of Meri- 
oneth, and chaplain in ordinary to the king. 

Lloyd next published a book in defence of the 
Church of England Catholic ; or rather, to use Sir 
Allan Apsley's actual words, of those of her sons re- 
proachfully termed " Church Catholics " — Lancelot 
Andrews, Usher, Jeremy Taylor, besides the eminent 
Christians who are commemorated in Izaak Walton's 
inimitable biographies. One would have thought 
such men, ornaments of that century, required little 
championizing. 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 325 

The design of Dr. Lloyd's book is to distinguish 
between English Church Catholics and Roman Ca- 
tholics. He had the rare good fortune to please not 
only the most distinguished churchmen of the day, 
but even the Duke of York, who crossed the House 
of Lords one day to congratulate Dr. Lamplugh on 
his promotion to the see of Exeter, and inquired who 
was his successor to the living of St. Martin's-in-the- 
Fields? 

"Dr. Lloyd," replied the bishop. On which his 
Royal Highness said, " Dr. Lloyd is a learned and 
worthy man, and has lately written a very excellent 
book." Lamplugh was surprised that the duke, 
who had never spoken to him before, should do it 
then, only to praise Dr. Lloyd and his book. 

The principal transaction preserved of Dr. Lloyd, 
as rector of this now densely-populated parish of 
St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, was his negotiation with 
Richard Baxter for his meeting-house. Some curious 
traits of the times are revealed by it. Oxenden Street 
was then building, and Richard Baxter erected there 
a place of worship for the use of his sect, but found 
the speculation disastrous, for Mr. Secretary Coventry 
instigated the guards of Charles II. to come under 
the windows and flourish their trumpets and beat 
their drums whenever Richard preached. Finding 
that not a word he said could be heard, and that 
remonstrating with these gentry was dangerous, 
Baxter sought to dispose of the buildiug. Dr. Lloyd 
kindly introduced the affair to the vestry of St. Mar- 
tin's. By his mediation poor Baxter obtained the 
handsome rental of £40 per annum for the building 



326 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

from the vestry, and it was forthwith consecrated as 
a " Tabernacle "* to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 

The death of the Duke of York's infant son, in 
1677, directed the attention of the nation and of the 
Church of England to the Lady Mary of York, lately 
married to William, Prince of Orange, her cousin. 
The princess, both by inclination and education, had 
been attached to the Church of England Catholic 
when she left her native country. There was great 
anxiety regarding the bias she was likely to take 
when left to her own guidance in Holland, where the 
prevalent worship was opposed to all she had been 
accustomed to venerate. Unfortunately Dr. Lloyd 
was appointed, by the influence of her late preceptor, 
Compton, Bishop of London, as the chief of her 
chaplains. Lloyd, to the great vexation of the or- 
thodox divines of the Church of England,! induced 
the princess to attend several times the services in a 
place of worship called the English Congregationists, 
where the tenets of the fanatic fatalists called 
Brownists were prevalent. Though Lloyd was re- 
called on this account, the popularity of his book 
supported him, and he was welcomed on his return 
to England as one of the warmest champions of the 
Church. 

When Titus Oates brought forward his marvel- 
lously expanding budget of contradictory perjuries, 
denouncing a " Popish plot for the destruction of all 
good Protestants," Lloyd not only maintained its 
credibility, but blew up popular fury to its fiercest 

* Evidently meant as a Chapel-of-Ease. 
t Lake's Diary. 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 327 

flames by liis funeral sermon on Sir Edmondbury 
Godfrey, the supposed victim of the Eoman Catho- 
lics. To give effect to this able piece of oratory, 
which was delivered to an overflowing congregation 
by Dr. Lloyd in his own church, St. Martin's-in- 
the-Fields, two tall able-bodied clergymen mounted 
guard on either side of his pulpit, as his personal 
defenders, in case the Popish armies, his friend Titus 
Oates had sworn were making their way under ground, 
should effect an eruption, and suddenly work upwards 
into the church, and demolish the preacher before 
the face of that congregation. 

Dr. Lloyd was greatly censured for refusing the 
sacrament to Berry, the porter of Somerset House, 
one of the victims of Titus Oates. Berry declared 
himself a Protestant, and passionately entreated to 
be allowed to communicate, according to the rites of 
the Church of England, before he suffered, solemnly 
affirming at the same time his innocence of the crime 
for which he had been condemned to death. The 
countenance Lloyd bestowed on Turbeville, one of 
the false witnesses, whose perjured evidence brought 
the venerable Lord Stafford to the block, was also 
considered highly disgraceful. Indeed through the 
whole of that agitating period he made himself very 
busy, till Charles II., in the hope of getting him out 
of the way, made him Bishop of St. Asaph. He was 
consecrated at Lambeth, October, 1680. 

In due time the Popish Plot went out of fashion, 
and even Lloyd felt mortified at being identified with 
the party that had encouraged and patronised its 
authors ; and he wrote an uneasy letter to Sancroft 



328 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. ' 

on the subject, partly attributing his countenancing 
their incredible inventions to fear. 

"I have received," he says, "two letters from Sir 
Koger L'Estrange concerning Prance, who, it seems, 
is now in custody ; and I have written him all that I 
know and can think of on that subject. He also 
asked me some things concerning Sir Edmondbury 
Godfrey, which I have answ r ered truly, I am sure I 
know not how satisfactorily. The reason I have to 
doubt is, because I frankly told him, concerning that 
gentleman's death, I am still of the same opinion that 
I was when I preached at his funeral. I confess I am 
not able to answer the arguments that I used then, 
nor I have not yet seen anything to alter my opinion 
but the informations of Oates, Bedlow, and Prance, 
which I could never reconcile with what I knew of 
that story. And their tales, which I durst not contra- 
dict, I did never countenance or encourage. 

" I write this to your grace, because I was told 
last night by a gentleman of my neighbourhood that 
the Roman Catholics of this country have got a story 
among them of a letter that Oates has written to me, 
to thank me for the maintenance I have given him 
in prison, which they say has been lately intercepted. 
They that hide can find. If there be any such thing 
it would be sport for Oates to hear that they believed 
it, and much more to see me treated as they would 
have me that were the authors of that letter. But 
perhaps there is nothing in all this but fiction. I 
let it pass for such. But I acquaint your grace with 
it, that you may not be surprised if you should hear 
of any such story. 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 329 

"I heartily lament the death of our good friend, 
my lord of York. He was very useful to the king 
and the Church in that province. God direct his 
Majesty in the filling of that see. It is some comfort 
to me to hear it said that Dr. Jeffreys is like to come 
into the order upon occasion of this vacancy, though 
I have not heard in what see. He is a right worthy 
good man, and the likeliest to keep an ill man out 
of the order, and therefore I cannot but wish well 
to his promotion. And what I think I write to your 
grace, according to the freedom you have given me. 
With the same freedom I make bold to acquaint your 
grace that my friend, Dr. Beynell, of Corpus Christi, 
in Oxford, has told me that without doubt it would 
be either Dr. Jeffreys, or your grace's chaplain, Dr. 
Maurice, or Dr. Humfreys, the Dean of Bangor. 
The first of these has the best interest, but I believe 
he would not make use of it for this nor perhaps for 
any bishopric. The second has by much the best 
parts of all the three. The third is a singular good 
man, and of all others best knows the diocese, and 
would be the most acceptable of all men to the clergy 
and people that live in it. 

" This I say to your grace perfectly out of duty, 
for I know not whether any of these three, if they 
knew it, would thank me for saying what I do. But 
there is another thing wherein I humbly crave leave 
to speak for my friend ; though I trust I shall never 
do that, but when it may be for the service of the 
Church, in my opinion, which I hold always with 
submission. I speak now for Mr. Jonathan Blagrave, 
who having married my sister, and buried her with- 



330 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

out any child, went afterward to serve the Princess of 
Orange. He served her Highness five years, in the 
place of second chaplain, with great acceptance, and 
would scarce have had leave to come away but that 
Mrs. Langford had a son that was ready to come into 
the place. Both while he was there, and since his 
coming away, her Eoyal Highness has written several 
letters in his behalf to the Bishop of London, to my 
Lady Clarendon, and to the Earl of Rochester. Last- 
summer his Majesty was pleased to take notice of his 
service, and to promise that he would be kind to 
him. God be thanked he is not in want, for he has 
two livings that he got by evicting the incumbents 
of 'simony, and they are both of them near Oxford, 
and within ten miles of one another. But he would 
be glad to have something on her Highness's ac- 
count, and particularly desires to have a prebend of 
Worcester, because the living on which he resides is 
within a little day's journey of that place. I would 
not ask this for him, but that I know he is a worthy 
man, and will well become the place, and has a fair 
pretension to it by the things that I have written. 
Knowing this, I make bold to beg your grace's favour 
to him, and what assistance you shall think fit to give 
in such a matter. 

" I beseech God to preserve your grace's health, 
now especially while it is so needful to the Church, 
and to direct and bless all your counsels and endea- 
vours. I humbly crave your blessing and take leave. 

" Your grace's most obedient son and servant, 

" W. Asaph."* 

* Tanner, xxx. 24. 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 331 

It was probably through the instrumentality of this 
brother-in-law that Lloyd carried on his unsuspected 
correspondence with the Prince of Orange so long 
and secretly. He had, however, plenty of hard and 
difficult work in his obscure Welsh diocese, especially 
to find clergymen who could preach in the language 
understood by the people. He makes the following 
statement to Sancroft, of one among the many dilem- 
mas in which he found himself involved in the con- 
duct of his see : — 

"May 4, 1683* 

" There is," writes he, " a nephew of my prede- 
cessor, one Mr. Thomas Clopton, whom his uncle 
preferred as well as he could in this diocese from the 
time of his entering into orders, which was but three 
or four years before his uncle's death ; that is, he 
gave him a prebend of about 20Z. per annum, two 
sinecures worth each of them about 60Z. per annum, 
and a rectory with cure of souls of about 100?. per 
annum. 

" This rectory is called Castle, which lies in Mont- 
gomeryshire, not far out of England, and yet not a 
third part of the people understands any English ; 
and though Mr. Clopton, to qualify himself for it, 
made his uncle believe he had learned Welsh (and 
he did indeed learn so far as to read a "Welsh sermon 
once in a parish church, that he might be able to say 
he had preached in Welsh ; but he read it so that 
none that heard him could understand anything in it 
no more than himself), he came thither, and still 

* Tanner, xxxiv. 31. 



332 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

continues unable to perform any Church-office in the 
Welsh language. The people were very much dis- 
contented at this, as they had cause ; and they sent 
me their complaint of it at my first coming into the 
diocese. Thereupon I desired him, as soon as I saw 
him, to learn their language, and to make himself 
useful in his cure. He promised he would do what 
he could ; but said he found it so difficult, that he 
would take it for a very great favour if I would save 
him the trouble, by finding him a living of 200?. a 
year or better in England ; for which, with many 
thanks, he would resign all he had in this diocese. I 
promised him I would endeavour to do it ; and lately 
it has pleased God to give me an opportunity beyond 
his or my expectation. 

" Dr. Pell, the mathematician, had the next ad- 
vowson of Malpas given him by the Lord Brereton, 
who was the patron of it ; and hearing of the death 
of Mr. Bridge, the last incumbent, the Doctor sent 
me an earnest request that I would find him a sine- 
cure of 100?. a year or better, that he might have in 
exchange for the living of Malpas, which is worth 
above 300Z. I presently acquainted Mr. Clopton 
with it, who gladly embraced the condition, and de- 
sired me to bring it to effect. I told him that when 
he parted with his sinecures to Dr. Pell, he must not 
think to make a sinecure of Castle. He was content 
to part with that also, and desired to keep nothing 
but his prebend, which I willingly allowed. 

" Thereupon I got him Dr. Pell's presentation, 
which he has now in his hands. But since I hear, 
and have reason to suspect, that he intends privately 



LLOYD, BISHOr OF ST. ASAPH. 333 

to get a dispensation, and so to hold Castle with 
Malpas. Such would be a greaf dishonesty in him, 
and a defeating of my design, which is truly for the 
service of the Church. I therefore write this to pre- 
vent him, and make it my humble suit to your grace 
that he may have no dispensation. If your grace 
will be pleased to lay aside this letter for him, in 
case he should come for a dispensation, I humbly 
desire that this may be given him for his answer." 

At a later period of his episcopate Lloyd writes 
earnestly, in reply to Sancroft's injunction that 
undergraduates- should not be ordained for holding 
livings in the Church, in Wales. There seems both 
truth and reason in the poor bishop's observations on 
the difficulty of supplying the ministry. His com- 
munication is very instructive as to the state of the 
Church in Wales. 

u I must crave leave," he writes, " to remind your 
grace that I excepted against the restraint from or- 
daining them that are not graduates in the university, 
as being not practicable in our Welsh diocese. We 
have a great many more cures of souls than we have 
graduates in this country ; and as most of the people 
understand nothing but Welsh, we cannot supply 
the cures with any other but Welshmen. But yet 
of those whom I have ordained, the graduates have 
not been always the best scholars. I have more than 
once seen them shamefully outdone by men that 
never saw the university. And I never ordained any 
but them that could perform the exercise required 
by the 34th Canon of the Synod in 1603. 

" For the state of the Church in Xorth Wales, I 



334 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

bless God I do not know any reason we have to com- 
plain. I am well assured that in these six counties 
there are not six persons fewer in the communion of 
our Church than there were in the beginning of his 
Majesty's reign. And for them that are in the Church 
communion, who are the generality of our people, I 
thank God I do not find that they grow worse. I 
hope they rather grow better ; and that w 7 hich is my 
greatest comfort, I do not know of one scandalous 
churchman in this diocese. All seem to be very sen- 
sible of the great blessing we have in our primate ; 
and promise themselves that as he had no hand in 
the breach that has been made in our Church, so 
he will do all that is possible for him to do toward 
the repairing of it, and that meanwhile toward the 
preventing of those hurtful effects that it threatens. 

" I beseech God long to continue this blessing to 
us, and to make it more and more beneficial to His 
Church. 

" I humbly crave your blessing, and remain, 

" Your grace's most obliged, and 

" Most obedient son and servant, 

"W. Asaph."* 

Lloyd had now time and leisure for completing 
his great ecclesiastical work — the 'History of the 
Government of the Church in Great Britain and Ire- 
land when they first received Christianity/ 

He was busily engaged in writing and printing at 

* Tanner, xxx. 124. 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 335 

the same time, when unseasonably interrupted, first 
by a summons from Lord Clarendon to attend to 
ecclesiastical affairs in town, and then by a request 
to undertake the Lent preaching at Whitehall for 
Sancroft, Mrs. Lloyd being dangerously ill at the 
same time. Under these circumstances he writes the 
following letter and excuse to Sancroft : — 

t; May it please your Geace,* 

" If it had not pleased God to stay me here, bv 
putting my wife's life in danger for some time, and 
keeping her ever since in so great uneasiness that I 
thought my presence with her necessary, otherwise I 
should have been at London ten days ago, to attend 
a business t>f my Lord Clarendon's, in which the 
Bishop of Ely is concerned with me ; and therefore 
he might very well inform your grace, as he did, that 
I am to be shortly at London. 

"I thank God at present I do not apprehend my 
wife to be in danger of her life ; and though she is 
still in a very low condition, yet, being used to 
affliction, she is the better able to endure it. I do 
therefore intend, if matters continue as they are, or 
be not worse, with God's leave, to go for London on 
Monday next ; and when my business is over, for 
which I presume a few hours will suffice, I hope on 
Thursday to wait on your grace at Lambeth. On 
Friday I intend to return, being obliged to make 
all the haste I can, that the press may not stand 
idle in my absence, and a further delay be put to the 
work, which has lain too long already on my hands. 
* Tanner, xxix. 143. 



336 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

I shall, as your grace is pleased to require, bring 
the printed sheets along with me, by which it will 
appear that I have not been idle, and that it is not 
nothing which I stuck at, though indeed I do not 
think it worth the time I spent about it. 

" God be blessed, there remains no other difficulty 
that I know of, and I am sure there cannot arise any 
other stop, except from God or his Majesty. The 
press has not stayed an hour for me these two 
months ; but I cannot hope to be so much before- 
hand in my work as to have another week to spare 
after this that I have promised my Lord Clarendon. 
Therefore I must entreat your grace to excuse me 
from preaching at Whitehall. That would take up 
two weeks at least of my time, one for study, and 
another for the journey. And though I would throw 
away my work rather than your grace's health should 
be exposed to the hazard, as I know it must be in 
preaching at Whitehall (I know not what I would 
not suffer rather than this) ; yet since there is no 
necessity of it, if I should not come, my good brother 
my lord of Ely being so near at hand and ready to 
help ; or if no bishop could be had, your grace's 
chaplains being so very sufficient, I must beseech 
your grace to order the supply to be made by one 
of these, or some other whom you shall judge fit. I 
fear the post is going, and therefore I make haste to 
crave your blessing and take leave." 

Early in James II.'s reign Lloyd's book appeared, 
which, although as might have been expected 
from an author of his imaginative temperament 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 337 

and strong political bias was replete with erro- 
neous statements, was greatly admired by a very 
strong party, and procured great popularity for the 
right reverend author, although the work was vehe- 
mently answered by the celebrated George Macken- 
zie, who pointed out all its blunders and misrepresen- 
tations with unsparing severity. This mattered not ; 
the book was in great public favour, and Lloyd's zeal 
against Popery, and ardent expressions of affection 
for the Church of England, obtained for him the full 
confidence of Archbishop Sancroft and the rest of the 
hierarchy, and he received another request from the 
primate to preach for him at Whitehall, from which 
duty he excused himself on account of his attendance 
by the sick bed of the Bishop of Chester. The fol- 
lowing particulars are very interesting : — 

"Dec. 27, 1685.* 

"May it please your Geace, 

" I have received your order to preach at White- 
hall on the 21st of February next, which order 1 
am most willing to obey, and shall do it, w T ith God's 
permission, if the parliament meet on the 10th of 
February, or soon after that time. But if there 
should be a longer prorogation, I must humbly beg 
your grace's excuse, that I may not be put to that 
expense of money and time which so long a journey 
requires, on no other account but only to preach a 
Lent-sermon. But this, I presume, was your grace's 
intention in laying this duty upon me, and therefore 
I am in no fear of being put to the trouble of an un- 
* Tanner, xxxi. 242. 

Z 



338 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

necessary journey to London. I put in that last- 
word with reflection upon a journey that I made on 
Christmas Eve as far as Chester without any neces- 
sity, but, as I thought, to take leave of my Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland. By the best information I 
could get, his excellency was to go from thence im- 
mediately to Dublin. But I had the satisfaction to 
know, when I came thither, that he intends to go by 
land to Holyhead, and in his way thither to honour 
my house with his company on Monday next. Be- 
sides this, I had the satisfaction at Chester to see the 
good bishop, and to find him much better than he 
was when I saw him in October last. Then, as I 
acquainted your grace, he considered himself as now 
dying, and desired me to present his duty to your 
grace, with his suit in behalf of his chaplain, Mr. 
Allen, for whom he has been able to do nothing 
toward his settlement in all the ten years that he 
had lived with him ; and now he humbly begged your 
grace would take him into your care. This, which 
seemed to be his dying request, and which I knew 
was made for one of great merit, I took upon me to 
recommend to your grace, which he took very thank- 
fully, but he could not express it, though he laboured 
for words, nor could I make him understand what I 
said more. Now at this visit I found him in his 
bed, very sensible, and very well able to express him- 
self. 

" The first thing he asked me was concerning your 
grace, how you did, and whether you remembered 
him. When I answered him according to his desire 
he was sensibly revived with it, and spoke with great 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 339 

warmth of affection, how happy we were in such a 
primate, and he in such a friend. And when I told 
him what your grace was pleased to say upon his 
request for Mr. Allen, he said it gave him great ease 
in that which was the greatest pain to his mind, and 
desired me to mind your grace of it when there 
should be occasion. 

" I think I told your grace what a sermon I hap- 
pened to hear from Mr. Allen when I was last before 
this at Chester. He preaches there often, without 
any obligation, for he has nothing in the world but 
his fellowship : and yet, though he preaches extra- 
ordinary well, it is not much more his study than his 
business. While the Bishop of Chester was well and 
could study, it was Mr. Allen's business to read for 
him and to study with him. When he fell into his 
present disability he committed all his papers of all 
sorts (which are in many kinds very considerable) to 
Mr. Allen's care, with allowance to publish what he 
thought fit. Ever since his great illness he has taken 
no physic but out of his hand, and is ruled by Mr 
Allen as a child is by its nurse, and regards not what 
is said by any other, so that the poor man cannot be 
spared from his attendance one day, nor many hours 
of it together. I write this to show your grace that 
at present he cannot take a cure of souls, though he 
is very fit for it. But if your grace could find any- 
thing else for him, that would consist with his at- 
tendance, the news of it I believe would be the best 
cordial the bishop could take. I judge so by what I 
saw of the operation it had when I told him he was 
in your thoughts. I had besides a great deal of dis- 



340 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

course with him concerning other things, but nothing 
of learning ; and to everything he spoke very perti- 
nently, and wanted not words. But I was fain to 
speak so loud, because of his deafness on one side of 
his head and great difficulty of hearing on the other, 
that after half-an-hour I was forced to give over for 
weariness. His physicians think he may continue 
thus for some years, but they have little hope that 
he will ever be able to go on with his work ; only for 
the things that ask no great thought he does them 
sufficiently. 

" I have here enclosed sent your grace an account 
of my ordinations at the last of the four times. You 
will see all things else according to your grace's in- 
junctions, except the ordination of one Mr. Maesmore, 
an undergraduate, whom I ordained deacon about 
three years ago, and now priest. He is exceedingly 
improved in learning and knowledge within this 
time, and a pious, sober man, but so poor that he had 
not wherewith to pay his ordinary fees. I preferred 
him from Mwyn Clawdd chapel, in Wrexham parish, 
where he had 11. ill paid, to Meliden, where now he 
will have 101. a year. But he must do half-a-year's 
service before he will receive anything. And there 
has not been a sacrament there since Whitsuntide 
last for w r ant of a priest in that cure, nor would have 
been now at Christmas if I had not ordained him. 
But I was fain to ordain him wdthout your grace's 
dispensation, for though I would have been at the 
charge of sending for it, I had not time. The poor 
man did not offer himself to be ordained because he 
could not be at the charge. But when I heard that 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST, ASAPH. 341 

that church wanted sacraments, and I knew that 
there was not a priest to spare in the diocese, I sent 
for him to be examined when it was too late to send 
for a dispensation. I beg your grace's pardon for 
this ; for though what I did was not against any law, 
it was against an article which, upon your grace's 
proposal, I agreed to, though I had before objected 
to it, as being likely to perplex the AVelsh bishops, 
and those others that are far distant from London 
and have very poor cures to provide for. I humbly 
propose, for their sakes, that your grace would be 
pleased to interpret the word dispensation, that it 
may be in writing under your hand, without the 
affixing of any seal, that it may be the sooner dis- 
patched, and without charge to the persons concerned 
in it. 

" I did not intend to have written so much as I 
have done, but I had not time to think what I had to 
write, that I might have brought it into a less com- 



" I beseech God to add many more years to this, 
which is near an end, and many more blessings to 
every year that we enjoy of your grace's truly fatherly 
government over us. And I beg your grace's 
blessing on your most obliged and most obedient 
son and servant, 

"W. Asaph." 

In his next letter Lloyd gives a more favourable 
account of the Bishop of Chester to Bancroft, but re- 
ports the dangerous illness of the Bishop of Bangor. 
He 



342 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

" Of my neighbours, I hear the Bishop of Chester 
gathers strength, and is hoped to be in a fair way of 
recovery ; but the Bishop of Bangor is lately fallen 
very ill, and keeps his bed. There is reason to fear 
he may not be long-lived, because he has been very 
infirm ever since his last London journey. 

" Upon this occasion, and on all of this kind, I 
hold it my duty to speak freely to your grace, and 
to give you my opinion of things in which the Church 
is concerned, entirely submitting it to your grace's 
judgment, if this see should be void the fittest man 
to fill it." 

It is almost amusing to observe how vigilant and 
unremitting Lloyd is in his observations on the de- 
clining health of other prelates, especially those who 
were in possession of richer sees than his own poor 
Welsh benefice. In July, 1686, he has at last the 
satisfaction of announcing to the primate the depar- 
ture of two of these worthy prelates, with suitable 
lamentations : — 

" And now I am come upon a subject that makes 
my heart ache to think of it. Before my letter 
comes your grace will have heard of the death of that 
most pious, learned, useful man, the Bishop of Ox- 
ford, who died on Saturday, the 10th instant ; and of 
that most excellent Bishop of Chester, who died, as 
I am told, the Thursday following. What wounds 
are these to the poor Church in her sorrow and weak- 
ness ! What breaches in the holy order, and when 
and how to be filled up ? 

" What fresh loads of cares must this bring upon 
your grace, that are so much overladen already ! 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 343 

God in mercy support you, that His Church may not 
sink in your arms. If those also should be taken 
away, how or by whom can she subsist ? God knows. 
But if it be His gracious will to preserve her, He will 
do it by such ways and means as He sees best : and 
oftentimes He raises up those which men see not till 
He shows them in His work. 

" If there be upon this or any other occasion any 
service that I can do for the Church, I am ready to 
receive your grace's commands, and to do what I can, 
without reckoning the cost of any kind, though liter- 
ally cost is the thing that I am most unable to bear. 
And therefore I have spared myself in the subscrip- 
tion for the French Protestants, and subscribed only a 
promise that what I do already I will do as long as I 
am Bishop of St. Asaph, that is, to allow one of their 
distressed ministers his board and a pension of 20Z. a 
year. The whole subscription of this small diocese 
amounts to little more than 350Z. My secretary is 
now from home. As soon as he returns I will send 
your grace the whole account of the collection in this 
diocese. I humbly crave your blessing, and remain, 

" My most honoured lord, 

" Your grace's most obliged and 

" Most honoured servant, 

"W. Asaph."* 

Neither of the two fat sees, whose vacation he an- 
nounced in the above letter, fell to Lloyd's share ; 
and all the compliments with which he was accus- 

* Tanner MSS., xxx. 3. 



o44 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

tomed to season liis letters to the primate were 
wasted. Lloyd was undoubtedly a very able letter- 
writer, and never omitted an opportunity of writing 
agreeable things to his superiors. In one of his let- 
ters to Sancroft he says, " The good God that has 
raised you to that place for public good, long continue 
you in it, and prosper all your endeavours for His 
glory." A happy sentence, and without flattery, which 
renders it the more pleasing. 

He testifies much sympathy for the troubles of the 
Vicar of Croydon, an unlucky and very poor Welsh- 
man, in whose behalf he writes to interest Sancroft, 
in the hope of getting him removed from so trouble- 
some and expensive a place (where he had been sorely 
persecuted with vexatious suits by Dr. CI avers) to 
some other, " where,' 9 continues Lloyd, " he may live 
quietly, and lick himself whole of the hurts he has 
got in these wars. I know, for his own part, he would 
rather be banished into his own country than con- 
tinue where he is, but his wife is not well made for 
the rough air of our country ; and, besides, there are 
very few places in my gift where he can ever hope 
to recover the charge that he must be at in removing. 
" I have a scurvy quality of delaying things till it 
is almost too late to set about them, that makes me 
now in danger of losing the post. I crave your bless- 
ing and take leave." 

Lloyd also solicits Sancroft in favour of Monsieur 
Allix, one of the refugee French ministers, who had 
at his own desire been admitted into Church of Eng- 
land orders, and was a candidate for an English 
living ; to which Sancroft had very properly objected, 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 345 

because he could not preach intelligibly in English, 
and had not been naturalized. Lloyd considered 
these matters of no importance, and thus vehemently 
urges Sancroft on the subject : — 

" Shall such a man as this is — the learnedest man 
that they had beyond the seas, and the best as far 
as I am able to judge, the best affected to our Church 
without controversy, when, having declined all foreign 
invitations, he has thrown himself into the arms of 
our Church, and taken her orders, and thereby made 
himself more hers, and her more his mother than 
his own — shall he and all his family be suffered to 
want necessaries in her bosom ? But who can help 
it ? If I could I should not Have troubled your grace 
with this request. But I have in my family a minis- 
ter and a scholar of the refugees. They are my sole 
charge. I had another minister, whom I have main- 
tained till of late that he is taken off my hands by 
the Bishop of Ely. I cannot do anything more that 
is considerable ; nor, if I could, he would not receive 
it in the way of eleemosynary charity. And for 
livings in my diocese, there is not any worth his ac- 
cepting, nor scarce any sinecure, but of these I have 
promised the next that shall fall. The next after 
that he shall have if I live and the law has its course. 
I should add, if it falls within these three harvests ; for 
after the third I lay my life he will have no need of 
it. The meanwhile, that this next harvest may yield 
him bread it is in your grace's power, and that is it 
which I humbly propose. I have proposed it twice, 
I will not do it a third time, for fear your grace 
should be angry with me, as indeed you have cause 



346 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

when I am importunate with you in a thing which, as 
far as it is of private concernment, is wholly yours ; 
and as it is of public concernment, which God knows 
I only consider, yet, so I cannot deny it is much 
more your grace's concernment than mine. I would 
add nothing more on this subject, but for an 
objection or two that were moved on this occa- 
sion. One was, as I remember, that he was not 
naturalized. That has not been a bar to others 
against coming into Church livings, and it ought 
not to be a bar to him, for he is denizened by his 
Majesty, which is as much as can be done for him 
in that behalf, without an Act of Parliament. The 
other objection was, that he has not the English 
tongue. I confess he does not pronounce it well, nor 
speak it without Frenchisms. But this objection lies 
against one that should be obliged to reside there, 
and not against one that shall be dispensed with 
for non-residence, as all rectors have been hitherto, 
except one that was born in that or as bad an air. 
What I say now is from the Bishop of Bochester, 
who said it by chance upon some discourse that hap- 
pened about Dr. Stradling, without any knowledge 
of my suit to your grace for Monsieur Allix. Whom 
having named a second time, I do (as the Friar 
says, in the ' Conformities/ one ought to do upon 
every mention of the name of St. Francis) lick my 
lips, and so humbly leave this matter to your grace's 
consideration." 

A more agreeable notice follows : — 

" On Friday morning I had the honour to kiss his 
Majesty's hand, and to receive some gracious ex- 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 347 

pressions, of which your grace will have an account 
from my Lord of Ely. I pray with a most ardent 
affection for your grace's good health and long 
life." 

Assuredly Sancroft must have been weary of 
Lloyd's perpetual importunity in behalf of one per- 
son or other. In the spring of 1688 he writes to 
solicit a place for a man who, when he was the rector 
of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, had never missed prayers. 
He says : — 

"I confess it does me good to see your grace's 
hand now and then, especially when I have no other 
way to be informed that you are well. But I would 
not have that satisfaction to myself on those terms 
that your grace should be uneasy for it one moment, 
as I judge by myself that every one must be, when 
he is writing unnecessary letters. 

"I write now at the request of one Mr. Prince, a 
mercer (as I think) in Paternoster Eow, who has 
married the widow of Mr. Godfrey that was formerly 
known to your grace. He desires to succeed Mr. 
Godfrey in the same place that he had in your grace's 
favour. And truly I think he is very capable of it. 
He is that man that scarce ever missed prayers, but 
never a sacrament, while I lived at St. Martin's. 
His piety was a great ornament to the Church. It 
was a jewel set in a ring of all other virtues, which 
made it shine very much in the esteem of all that 
knew him. Dr. Tenison, I doubt not, will give him 
the same testimony for the time that he lived with 
him in that parish. But I believe this is more than 
his matter requires. It is more, I am sure, than 



348 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

his modesty would allow, if he knew what I had 
written."* 

So entirely had Lloyd won the confidence and 
esteem of Archbishop Sancroft, that on the memo- 
rable occasion of the bishops presenting the petition 
to the king, praying to be excused from reading or 
causing the Act for Liberty of Conscience to be read 
in their respective dioceses, he acted as the substi- 
tute of the aged primate, whose severe cough inca- 
pacitated him from exposing himself to the night air 
in crossing the river from Lambeth to Whitehall. 

The circumstance of Lloyd's secret league with the 
Prince of Orange, and his own intimate acquaintance 
with all the business of the press, renders it extremely 
probable that he was the party who caused the pe- 
tition, together with a circumstantial detail of what 
passed between the bishops and their sovereign in 
the privacy of the royal closet, to be printed and 
hawked through the streets of London and Westmin- 
ster at midnight, which so highly incensed the king, 
and mortified and perplexed the worthy primate and 
the other prelates who were not in the secret, and 
felt their honour compromised, that circumstance 
being in all probability the cause of their imprison- 
ment. 

Lloyd was at that time employed in preparing a 
political pamphlet to discredit the reality of the 
birth of the anticipated heir to the crown. The un- 
welcome infant was brought into the world two days 
after the committal of the seven bishops to the 
Tower, and Lloyd became so greatly excited at the 

* Tanner, xxviii. 15. 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 349 

idea of the Princess of Orange being superseded as 
presumptive heiress of the realm by a popish heir 
apparent that he determined to leave no stone un- 
turned to invalidate the claims of her infant rival. 

It is not difficult to trace the organization of all 
the indelicate scandals regarding the asserted impos- 
tures, which were published in his book, to the visits 
Lady Clarendon made to the Bishop of St. Asaph 
during his imprisonment in the Tower. Lady Cla- 
rendon was the wife of the Princess of Orange's 
uncle. She w r as a very lively Court gossip, in 
which accomplishment she was at least equalled by 
Bishop Lloyd of St. Asaph. The two met to discuss 
the most scandalous chronicles regarding the new- 
born Prince of Wales. Lady Clarendon feeling eager 
that her husband's nieces should be elevated to the 
throne, industriously collected a budget of marvellous 
stories tending to discredit the parentage of their 
infant brother. These Bishop Lloyd strung together 
in a pamphlet, which was peppered too highly even 
for the historical taste of Bishop Burnet, to whom 
it was shown. 

Lloyd was much caressed by the populace after 
the trial and acquittal of the seven, but experienced 
great uneasiness when he learned King James's in- 
tention of summoning all the witnesses, both ladies 
and gentlemen, Protestants and Bomanists, who had 
been present at the birth of the Prince of Wales, in- 
cluding the queen dowager, and making them depose 
to the reality of that event before the Privy Council. 
Sancroft's presence was especially required at that 
council, and Lloyd, in order to prevent him from 



350 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

attending, addressed the following artful letter to 
him, in the hope of deterring him from listening to 
the evidence : — 

" Oct. 26, 1688. 
"My most honoured Lord, 

" I was told the last night as a secret that his 
Majesty intends to send for all the lords that were 
present at the examination of witnesses concerning 
the prince's birth, and to require them to subsign 
the examinations. This is agreeable enough with 
that which is printed in the ' Gazette,' viz., that a full 
and particular relation of this matter will be made 
public. For the hands of all that were present will 
add very much to the authority of the relation. I 
need not say what it will seem to import. Your 
grace has that to say for yourself which perhaps few 
others can say that were present. You did not hear 
a great part of what the witnesses said. If that will 
pass for a sufficient excuse, your grace has no cause 
to complain of the badness of your hearing. But 
surely it will be better for the public if such an ex- 
cuse can be found as will suffice for all that were 
present, and if all could agree to give the same ex- 
cuse. 

" It should seem by the calling of you thither, that 
either there is, or there is like to be, a dispute con- 
cerning the birth of this child ; and whensoever that 
matter comes to be tried you are like to be judges. 
But if the judges are called to set their hands to an 
examination of witnesses ex parte, before the cause 
comes to be heard, it is a strange kind of preoccu- 
pation that will make all the world of the plaintiff's 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 351 

side, and be rather a prejudice than an advantage to 
the cause. I hope his Majesty will be aware of this, 
and will therefore spare you this unnecessary trouble. 
Howsoever I thought it a part of my duty to let your 
grace know what I have heard. 

i; With my daily prayers I humbly crave your bless- 
ing and take leave, 

" My good lord, 

••' Your grace's most obliged and 

"Most obedient son and servant, 

* W. Asaph.* 

" I want Moses ben Haehman on •' Daniel,' and 
Levi ben Gerson on the same prophet. If your grace 
has them, I desire to borrow them for a fortnight/' 

Lloyd failed in his object of preventing Bancroft 
from attending the^ council. The archbishop was an 
honest and intrepid man. He knew it was his duty 
to attend the council and hear the evidence on the 
birth of the Prince of Wales. He did go, and was 
convinced by the testimony of the witnesses, both 
Roman Catholics and Protestants, that the attempt 
to dispute the reality of the event was the base fiction 
of political agitators, who scrupled not to violate both 
truth and probability in the absurd calumny they 
had invented to invalidate the rights of the unwel- 
come male heir of the crown. 

We mav imagine how 7 indignant the conscientious 
Bancroft would have been could he have known how 

* Tanner, xxviii. 212. 



352 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

busy the right reverend writer of that letter had been 
in the collection and circulation of the disgraceful 
falsehoods that were prejudicing the public mind 
against the royal infant. 

When the Ee volution of 1688 was accomplished, 
the Bishop of St. Asaph became excessively busy in 
persuading his brothers of the episcopacy, who had 
shared the Tower imprisonment, likewise Queen 
Mary's uncles, Lords Clarendon and Rochester, to 
swear allegiance to William and Mary. 

" He told me," says Clarendon, " that I was free 
from my oaths to King James ;" adding, " that he 
could very well take the new oaths, and that as 
things were, he took himself to be quite free from 
any obligation. Strange doctrine, as I thought, from 
a bishop." 

Lloyd spoke again to Clarendon, a month before 
the coronation, about the oaths, having himself taken 
them the week before. Clarendon told him " he had 
well considered the matter, and could not take them, 
and begged him not to mention them again." Cla- 
rendon asked " if he intended to assist at the corona- 
tion?" to which Lloyd hypocritically replied, "By 
no means ; for, by the grace of God, he would have 
no hand in making kings and queens." "At which," 
observes Clarendon, " I could not but laugh. I then 
asked him ' if he thought he had done the Church 
service in making Burnet Bishop of Sarum ?' At 
which, after a long pause, too habitual with him, he 
asked me, ' why I thought he had made him ?' I told 
him ' that was answering me with another question ; 
but since he did so, I would give him a direct answer, 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 353 

hoping he would do the like to me.' and so I told 
him, ' I had from good hands that when King Wil- 
liam was spoken to about that bishopric, and put in 
mind that he had promised it both to Sir Jonathan 
Trelawny, Bishop of Bristol, and Dr. Patrick, he said, 
1 Indeed he had promised it to Bristol, but that the 
Bishop of St. Asaph was so pressing upon him that 
he could have no quiet from his importunity till he 
had given it to Burnet.' To this Lloyd merely re- 
plied, after one of his pauses, ' that he could not tell 
what King 'William might say,' but did not deny it." 

Notwithstanding his remarkable reply to Queen 
Mary's uncle, Clarendon, Bishop Lloyd made his ap- 
pearance on the platform at Westminster Abbey as 
one of the few bishops who assisted at the coronation. 
Double work there was to do, and three-fourths of 
the bishops resolved not to assist in it, Lloyd per- 
formed the duty of the absent primate at the recog- 
nition, by presenting Queen Mary to the people. 

A very animated sermon was preached by Lloyd 
on the anniversary of Gunpowder Treason and Plot, 
November oth, 1690, before the king and queen and 
Court, commemorating the birthday and the landing 
of the Prince of Orange at Torbay, which he treated 
as the climax of all the marvellous deliverances of 
the Church of England from popery. 

He received, as the reward of his pains, either im- 
mediately before or soon after the coronation, the 
office of Lord Almoner to King William — a thorough 
sinecure, as connected with distributing the contents 
of the royal charity purse of that sovereign. 

Nothing can be more contemptible than Lloyd's 

2 A 



354 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

letter to Mr. Dodwell, dated November, 1695, re- 
lating to the events of the last years of James II., in 
which he defends the false pretences used by William 
in his declaration denouncing the spurious birth of 
the Prince of Wales. 

"You ask," he says, "why that matter was not 
brought before the parliament. The reason is plain in 
the Act of the Succession. The present king does not 
pretend to an hereditary right. He had the right of 
conquest over King James, which, being confirmed 
by the consent of the nation, thus gives him a lawful 
right to the monarchy. But why did the Prince of 
Orange pretend that this should be examined in par- 
liament ? or where did he pretend it ? Never but in 
his declaration. There, indeed, he did insist upon 
this, to have the witnesses examined, and that fright- 
ened them away. The queen and her midwife are 
gone. Did the Prince of Orange ever pretend to ex- 
amine any other witnesses ?" 

When Pepys, who had been arrested for high trea- 
son in 1691, was liberated on bail, Bishop Lloyd 
ventured to enlighten him with writing to him one of 
his prophecies founded on the Apocalypse. Evelyn, 
thinking, it may be presumed, that he would prove a 
friend at court, wrote to Pepys the following rather 
sly letter : — 

" John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys. 

« August, 1690. 

" This hasty script is to acquaint you that my 
lord Bishop of St. Asaph will take it for an honour 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 355 

to be thought able to give Mr. Pepys any light in 
those mysteries you and I have discoursed of. He 
would himself wait upon you, but I did not think it 
convenient for you to receive that compliment at first. 
' To-morrow,' his lordship says, ' eating no dinner, he 
shall be alone, and ready to receive your commands 
if it be seasonable to you.' I suppose about three 
o'clock in the afternoon may be a convenient time to 
wait on you to the Bishop of St. Asaph, or what other 
sooner (earlier) hour you appoint. 

"J. E. 

"P.S. — The lords in the Tower, against whom 
there is no special matter chargeable, are to be freed 
upon bail. My Lord Clarendon is also within that 
qualification, as the Bishop of St. Asaph tells me."*" 

Lloyd discontentedly accepted the bishopric of 
Lichfield and Coventry in 1699. The same year he 
published a ' Chronological Life of Pythagoras and 
other famous men, his contemporaries ' — a very quaint 
whimsical production. Soon after this publication he 
was translated to the bishopric of Worcester, January 
22nd, 1699 (old style). 

Little quiet ensued either for himself or the flock 
over which he extended his crosier. Worcester, both 
city and shire, had continued passionately loyal, and 
Lloyd was sent there to alter and crush down all 
chivalrous feeling in the gentry, all lurking jaco- 
bitism lingering in the Church. 

The last year of the seventeenth century was dis- 

* Pepys' Correspondence. 



356 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

turbed with rumours of insubordination among the 
powers of darkness. Witches were much given to 
misbecoming conduct, and the English prime minis- 
ter found it requisite to call the bishops of several 
dioceses in England to account for the same. Wor- 
cestershire was pre-eminent among the disturbed dis- 
tricts, and as its diocesan made pretence to prophetic 
and other supernatural gifts beyond the claims of 
regular-going Church of England clergymen, the 
Duke of Shrewsbury charged his secretary, Vernon, 
to remonstrate with him on the turbulence of the 
witches. Here w r e have the report of a secretary 
of state's despatch to his principal, dated 1699, 
June 8 : — 

" I told the Bishop of Worcester that his diocese 
is infested with notions about witches," writes Vernon. 
" He told me that he intends his clergy shall rectify 
their mistakes in that particular. But he is far from 
controverting the power of devils in the Gentile 
world, and that some of their extraordinary opera- 
tions may still take place where paganism is preva- 
lent; yet he thinks the Gospel has destroyed the 
powers of the devil wheresoever it extends and is 
acknowledged. And that those mortals who have 
embraced the hope of grace can never be injured by 
infernals neither in their own persons, those of their 
children, or their goods. And though a man may be 
so profligate as to give himself to the devil, yet he 
can receive no assistance from him to harm his 
Christian neighbour or anybody else in a supernatural 
way. I think," adds Vernon somewhat slyly, " we 
may assent to the latter part of his disquisition, and 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 357 

leave the pagans and the devil to settle their affairs 
their own way among themselves." 

Still, Mr. Secretary Vernon, as one of William III.'s 
faithful officials, was now and then troubled with 
Satanic freaks, particularly at the witches choosing 
perversely to unsettle the constitutional law of evi- 
dence, and voluntarily declaring themselves " male- 
ficient." Two days before he had the curious col- 
loquy with the bishop he wrote to the Duke of 
Shrewsbury : — 

" I have the honour of your grace's letter of June 
3, 1699.* I think the noise of witches breaks, out 
like the plague in several places at divers times. If 
these miserable creatures are in haste to die by other 
people's hands, and w T ill confess, they certainly will 
be served as they are in Scotland, where the judges 
tell them they don't believe them, yet sentence them 
to be burnt." 

They were burnt there long after the commence- 
ment of the eighteenth century. 

Rather a stormy diocese was the Tory county and 
city of Worcester to Bishop Lloyd, and continual 
were his contests therein, but more with loyal cava- 
liers of High Church principles than with the witches 
of Worcester. Vernon soon after reports that the 
Bishop of Worcester was going to law, hard and fast, 
on a matter of libel. A pamphlet had made its ap- 
pearance, reproaching him with his perpetual change 
of diocese for the purposes " of bettering himself." 
Bishop Lloyd was very desirous of catching and 
caging the pamphleteer. Mr. Secretary Vernon, 
* Stepney MS. of the above date. 



358 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

however, manifested no sort of sympathy, because of 
a dispute pending between them ; for it seems a 
canonry had fallen at Worcester, which this Mr. Sec- 
retary Vernon wanted for some other of the name of 
Vernon. The bishop pounced on it for one of his 
sons ; and severe is the tirade which Mr. Secretary 
bestows on " Bishop Lloyd's avarice, nepotism, and 
self-seeking/' 

" The printer of the pamphlet against the Bishop 
of Worcester is ordered to be prosecuted," writes 
Secretary Vernon to his patron, June 15, 1699. His 
accusation is founded on the pages wherein he de- 
clares "that frequent translations and removes of 
bishops are scandalous to the Church, disgraceful to 
the king, and that, as in Ireland, the lowest of the 
people have been graced with the highest preferments 
in the Church." 

The accession of the Princess Anne of Denmark to 
the throne healed uone of the feuds in Worcester- 
shire. 

Parnell, one of the knot of poets who brandished 
literary weapons of brightness and fine temper in de- 
fence of the Anglican Church, enumerates the new 
Bishop of Worcester among the junto that sat secretly 
to perplex the friends of Queen Anne. In the really 
elegant poem, ' Faction Displayed,' he draws this 
portrait of Lloyd ; the verses were attributed to 
Swift, but have his vigour without his coarseness :— 

" Then old Mysterio shook his silver hairs, 
Loaded with learning, prophecy, and years, 
Whom factious zeal to fierce unchristian strife 
Had hurried — in the last extreme of life — 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 359 

Strange dotage ! thus to sacrifice his ease 

When nature whispers man to spend his days 

In sweet retirement and religious peace ! 

For knowledge struggled in his heaving breast 

Ere he in these dark terms his mind express'd : 

4 The stars roll adverse and malignant shine 

Some dire portent ! some horror I divine ; 

That Anna to the Beast will be inclined, 

I plainly in the Kevelations find. 

Howe'er, though she and all her senate frown, 

I'll wage eternal war with Packington, 

And venture life and see to pull him down.' " 

The allusion to the name of Packington requires 
explanation. It refers to the violent and illegal op- 
position of the bishop and his son to the re-election 
of the cavalier baronet, Sir John Packington, as 
knight of the shire for Worcestershire. They pub- 
lished the most vituperant libellous papers against 
him, denouncing him " as a vicious fellow from a 
vicious stock," and exhorted the clergy to oppose him 
in every possible way. 

The bishop scrupled not to threaten his own tenants, 
in case they presumed to vote for Sir John Packing- 
ton, that he would not renew their leases, and would 
even punish their children after them; with many 
other furious menaces peculiarly disgraceful from a 
prelate, and offensive to the county of Worcester- 
shire ; for Sir John Packington was the representative 
of a line of old English magnates peculiarly dear to 
their country, and Sir John was the gem of his race, 
the fine old cavalier from whom Addison drew the 
character of Sir Roger de Coverley. He was not a 
knight of the shire likely to be ousted from his seat 
by an oft-translated prelate new to Worcestershire, 



360 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

though an old political agitator. Sir John Packing- 
ton retained his seat, and the bishop lost his place as 
Royal Almoner, for the House of Commons debated 
on the proceedings of William, lord Bishop of Wor- 
cester, and his son and his agents, in order to hinder 
the election of a knight of the shire for the county of 
Worcestershire, and declared them " malicious, un- 
christian, and arbitrary, in high violation of the 
liberties and privileges of the Commons of England," 
and resolved that a humble address be presented to 
her Majesty that she will be pleased to remove the 
lord Bishop of Worcester from being Lord Almoner 
to her Majesty." 

Queen Anne complied, nothing loth, with the 
prayer of her faithful Commons. 

Unfortunately Hartlebury Castle, the country resi- 
dence of the Bishop of Worcester, and Westwood 
Park, that of the Packingtons, are in too close vicinity 
for persons to abide in peace and quiet who are not 
amicably disposed to each other. Hartlebury, about 
nine miles from Worcester, was the chief abiding- 
place of Bishop Lloyd, and Westwood Park only four 
miles from Hartlebury. 

Not feeling himself comfortable in the uncongenial 
diocese of Worcester, the bishop frequently deserted 
it for the Court, and, notwithstanding his dismissal 
from the office of Lord Almoner, "Old Mysterio" 
took every possible opportunity of pestering her 
Majesty with calling for audiences, in which he ex- 
pounded all knotty points of unfulfilled prophecy, and 
communicated his prophetic inspirations on public 
events. 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 361 

The Earl of Dartmouth, who was present, gives an 
amusing account of a scene which took place in the 
year 1712, when the old bishop told the queen "he 
thought it his duty to acquaint her that the Church 
of Eome would be utterly destroyed, and the city of 
Eome consumed by fire in less than four years, which 
he could prove beyond contradiction, if her Majesty 
would be graciously pleased to hear him upon the 
subject." The queen appointed him an audience the 
next morning. Lloyd came, accompanied by the 
Bishop of London, and called for a great Bible, w r hich 
was all, he said, that would be wanting. 

The queen had commanded the attendance of the 
Duke of Shrewsbury, the Earls of Oxford and Dart- 
mouth, and Dr. Arbuthnot. The bishop, who was 
proud of the opportunity of exercising his gift of 
prophecy in such company, showed more knowledge 
than sound judgment of Scripture, and held forth at 
great length, till the Earl of Oxford offering to give 
another interpretation to one of his texts, he gave 
way to an irrepressible burst of passion, which 
rendering him forgetful of the ceremonials due to 
royalty, he turned to the queen and exclaimed, " So 
says your treasurer, but God says otherwise, whether 
he like it or no." The queen, seeing him so angry 
and rude, turned away, and asked if her dinner were 
not ready ! 

The bishop was too much excited to take the hint 
that her Majesty was weary of the discussion and 
hungry besides. He returned undauntedly to the 
charge, and told her that " if what he said was not 
truth he did not know any truth, and was a very un- 



362 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

fit person to be trusted with explaining the gospel to 
the people, and offered to forfeit his bishopric if it 
did not prove true. ,, In conclusion he said some- 
thing to the queen in so low a voice that no one 
could hear what it was, but she afterwards told Lord 
Dartmouth that " it was an assurance that at the end 
of four years Christ would come to reign personally 
on the earth for a thousand years." 

Swift, in his ' Journal to Stella,' gives the following 
version of the above scene, or one very similar : — 

" Yesterday the old Bishop of Worcester, who pre- 
tends to be a prophet, went to Queen Anne, by ap- 
pointment, to prove to her Majesty, out of Daniel 
and the Revelations, that five years hence (1716) 
there will be a war of religion, that the King of 
France would be a Protestant and fight on their side, 
and that the Popedom would be destroyed. The 
prophesying bishop, moreover, promised at the end 
of a lengthy harangue in this strain, that if it fell 
out otherwise he would be content to give up his 
bishopric. 

" Lord Treasurer Harley, who stood by, entered into 
the controversy, and defeated the Hebraist prophet 
with his own learning — no great triumph, by-the- 
by, since the aged prelate was between eighty and 
ninety." 

Lloyd was eminent all over Europe for his skill in 
chronology. Calamy, speaking of his prophetic 
genius, says : — " He foretold the return of the Vau- 
dois to Piedmont, which fell out according to his 
words. But it stood solitary among many futile pre- 
dictions which he was constantly uttering." 



LLOYD, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 3G3 

Two young men of the Vaudois had spent some 
time in England, where they were much petted and 
patronized by Bishop Lloyd. Before they returned 
to their native land the prophetic prelate vented 
another prediction, telling them that " if they lived 
to the year 1716 they would have the happiness of 
standing on the tops of their native mountains and 
enjoying the sight of Rome in flames. IS ay, if they 
held out their hands they might warm them with the 
heat of her burnings." Such felicity, however, neither 
Bishop Lloyd or his proteges enjoyed, though they 
lived past the year 1716. 

Bishop Lloyd survived his royal mistress, Queen 
Anne, upwards of three years. He died at Hartle- 
bury Castle, August 30th, 1717, in the ninety-first 
year of his age, retaining all his faculties to the last. 
He was buried on the 10th of September, in the church 
of Fladbury, of which his son was rector. 

A monument in the chancel sets forth that " he 
w^as an excellent pattern of virtue and learning, of a 
quick invention, firm memory, exquisite judgment, 
great candour, piety, and gravity, a faithful historian, 
accurate chronologer, and skilled in the knowledge of 
the Scriptures to a miracle, very charitable, and dili- 
gent and careful in the discharge of his episcopal 
office." 



364 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS, 



SIE JONATHAN TEELAWNY, 

LOED BISHOP OF BRISTOL, OF EXETER, AND OF WINCHESTER. 

Eakl, or baron, or baronet, had not in the Church of 
England ever blended the duties of the temporal 
with the ecclesiastical noble before the time of Sir 
Jonathan Trelawny. Besides the weight of the 
three mitres which he wore successively, he had to 
support the dignity of one of the most ancient and 
remarkable families in this country. Enough work 
for any man's life it might be thought. And if Sir 
Jonathan, the Cornish chief, and Dr. Jonathan, the 
bishop, found his tasks in life somewhat incompatible, 
it may be said in his behalf that he had no prece- 
dent or chart whereby to guide his course. 

The antiquity of the British line of Trelawny 
of Trelawne is traced clearly to the aborigines of 
Britain. It had looked down with contempt from its 
Cornish castellated palace on the Saxon invaders. 
Britain had been changed into England by the 
Angles, its language into Teutonic, and its Celtic 
population into serfs. However, the Trelawnys of 
Trelawne, with some other brave chieftains, held 
them at bay in the w T est ; and under their banner of 



TEELAWNY, BISHOP OF BIUSTOL. 365 

the British wolf, statant, succeeded in keeping Cornish 
land intact from the foot of the Saxon invader, and 
British speech uncorrupted on the lips of Cornish 
men. Nor did these bold British chiefs alone defend 
the temporal happiness of their country. " The 
Christianity of the West" was especially guarded 
by their swords from the worshippers of Saxon 
fiends, from the onslaughts of the priests of Thor 
the Thunderer, and Wooden the Wild, who craved 
for human victims. 

So passed the dim dark ages, when Trelawne never 
lacked a Trelawny to defend the " Christianity of 
Exeter " and Cornwall. At last better times arrived, 
and throughout their Angle-land the dominant Saxon 
pagans submitted to the Cross, and the whole island 
became Christian ; yet the Trelawnys remained the 
head of a people peculiarly British and exclusive 
during the royalty of our Anglo-Norman kings. 

It was the policy of the warlike and astute Henry V. 
to make friends with the aborigines of the land, and 
employ in his French wars the Britons of the west as 
well as those of Wales. One of his favourite leaders 
was Sir John Trelawny of Trelawne. He rebuilt his 
gateway with his French spoils, over which might be 
seen the statue of Henry V. An ancient rhyme in 
Gothic characters beneath expressed the saying of 
the king, in a request for Cornish recruits : — 

1 ' He that will do aught for me, 
Let him love well Sir John Trelawne." 

It is somewhat singular that the Britons of the 
West of England at first did not live in harmony with 



366 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

the restored line of British kings, the royal Tudors. 
All Cornwall was up under the Trelawny flourishing 
in the time of Henry VII., when Perkin Warbeck 
claimed their loyalty, as Eichard Duke of York, the 
distressed son of Edward IV. Sir John of Trelawne 
led his Cornish tens of thousands to the so-called 
skirmish (which we greatly suspect was a very stout 
battle) at Blackheath. Trelawny of that Ilk was 
captured, and consigned to durance in the Tower. 
All the West was in an agony of rage and excitement. 
Ballads were made, and are sung even now, of Corn- 
ish men knocking at London gates to inquire news 
of Trelawny, whose head was considered to be in 
danger : — 

" And have they fixed the where and when, 
And must Trelawny die ? 
Then thirty thousand Cornish men 
Will know the reason why." 

The first Tudor monarch fortunately loved the chink 
of angels and nobles better than the dull clang of the 
headsman's axe ; and, moreover, he had Celtic feel- 
ings concerning pedigree and tongue in common with 
an ancient Briton. So Trelawny of Trelawne paid 
his fine, and was released from durance in London 
Tower. 

Lord Clarendon has done good justice to the bravery 
and loyalty of Sir John Trelawny, the bishop's grand- 
father, and related how he distinguished himself in 
the gallant partisan warfare maintained by Sir Ealph 
Hopton in the West, fighting through the civil war 
by the side of Sir Beginald Mohun, of Boconnock, 
his friend and father-in-law. When all was done 



TRELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 367 

that "man could do, he retreated to his stronghold 
at Trelawne, and brought up his numerous family 
as well as the impoverishing times of Cromwell 
would permit. His eldest son, Sir Jonathan Tre- 
lawny, w r as the husband of Mary, daughter of Sir 
Edward Seymour, of Bury Pomeroy, Devon. 

Sir Jonathan Trelawny had a very numerous family, 
certainly six sons. Jonathan, the third (born at 
Pelynt, in Corn Avail, 1650), w r as brought up to "the 
Church, educated at Westminster School, entered at 
Christ Church, Oxford, in 1668, and became student 
the year afterwards, Avhen he was nineteen. We have 
no precocious attainments to record of Jonathan 
Trelawny. 

Whilst he was pursuing his scholastic career, his 
father was in the household of the Duke of York, 
and domesticated with the duke and duchess at the 
old house called the Treasury, at Deptford, when the 
duke was sojourning there, practically superintending 
some of his great naval improvements and inventions 
at the neighbouring dockyard. Life w T as young and 
hope was high. Very merrily were the duke and Anne 
(Hyde) his duchess spending their evenings with their 
family circle, only the ladies and gentlemen of their 
household, in that dilapidated, half-furnished house. 

Old Sir Jonathan was of so irascible a temper, that 
during the stormy debates in the House of Commons 
on the Test Act and the Bill for disabling Papists from 
sitting in parliament, high words arose between him 
and Mr. Ashe, when the fiery Cornish cavalier dealt 
his opponent a thundering box on the ear, who re- 
turned the blow. Sir Jonathan flashed out his 



368 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

sword ; Ashe likewise drew. The belligerents were 
dragged apart by the gentlemen in their vicinity. 
Ashe, as the least in fault, was only consigned to the 
Black Rod, and very severely reprimanded by the 
Speaker ; but Sir Jonathan was sent to the Tower. 

The Duke of York appointed little Anne Tre- 
lawny as the attendant of his daughter, the Lady 
Mary of York, to be brought up with her as her 
friend and first maid of honour. The young princess 
loved this companion of her infancy most entirely. 
Anne Trelawny was her first and only female friend. 
When the Lady Mary of York married her cousin, 
the Prince of Orange, the young lady of Trelawne 
left England with her princess, and lived in Holland 
with her as her favourite maid of honour. 

While the Prince of Orange was trying the spirit- 
breaking process with his wife, to crush down her 
affection to her father and family, he was told all his 
endeavours were useless while she had her friend 
Anne Trelawny near her. After the remarkable 
palace occurrence, when the hero of Orange, by his 
own account * of affairs, picked Dr. Covell's desk, 
and read his quaint letter, describing his own beha- 
viour to the princess, he finished by sending the 
young lady of Trelawne home very abruptly, although 
she had not the least concern in the offence given. 
Miss Anne Trelawny was escorted home by Mrs. 
Langford, the nurse of the princess, and by quaint old 
Dr. Covell, the princess's Church of England chap- 
lain. Mary never supplied the place of Anne Tre- 

* See his letter to Charles II. in Henry, Lord Clarendon's letters, 
ete. 



TRELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 369 

lawny, but lived and died without any other female 
friend. 

When James II. ascended the throne of Great 
Britain, his old friend and domestic, Sir Jonathan 
Trelawny, had sunk under his numerous tribulations. 
Among others, in 1680, he had lost his two eldest 
sons. They died childless. The old cavalier was suc- 
ceeded in the baronetcy and extensive domain of 
Trelawne by his third son, the Rev. Jonathan Tre- 
lawny, then .Rector of St. Ives and Southill, Cornwall. 

The rev. baronet complained bitterly of poverty, 
and a few years afterwards, on being appointed by 
James II. to the bishopric of Bristol, he addressed the 
following most original letter to the Earl of Roches- 
ter, then Lord Chancellor : — 

J* Sir J. Trelaivny to the Earl of Rochester. 

" July 10th, 1685. 

" Give me leave to throw myself at your lord- 
ship's feet, humbly imploring your patronage, if not 
for the bishopric of Peterborough, at least for Chiches- 
ter, if the Bishop of Exeter cannot be obliged to ac- 
cept of that now vacant see, which he seemed to 
incline to when his removal to Peterborough was 
proposed ; and I am assured from those about him, 
that if the king should be pleased to tell him he is 
resolved on his translation to Chichester, he will 
readily close with it ; and let me beseech your lord- 
ship to fix him there, and to advance your creature to 
Exeter, w T here I can serve the king and your lordship. 

" I hear his Majesty designed me for Bristol, which 

2 B 



370 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

I should not decline was I not already under such 
pressure by my father's debts, as must necessarily 
break my estate to pieces if I find no better prop 
than the income of Bristol, not greater than 300Z. 
per annum ; and the expense in consecration, first 
fruits, and settlement, will require 2000?. 

" If Peterborough and Chichester shall be both re- 
fused me, I shall not deny Bristol, though my ruin 
goes with it, if it be the king's pleasure, or any way 
for his Majesty's service that I should accept it. 

u But I hope the king (James II.) will have more 
tender compassions on his slave, and that your lordship 
will vouchsafe a better lot to, my lord, 

" Your lordship's 

" Most humble and devoted servant, 

"J. Tkelawny." 

Notwithstanding the pathos of this appeal, poor 
Sir Jonathan Trelawny was forced to abide by des- 
pised Bristol, instead of getting it exchanged for 
either of the richer sees he coveted. 

His dissatisfaction and complaints greatly displeased 
Sancroft, insomuch that he was in some danger of 
losing even this paltry benefice, and worse than that, 
the spiritual peerage it would confer on its possessor. 
After nearly two months' consideration, the Bev. Sir 
Jonathan, who had retired to his family estate in 
Cornwall, addressed the following letter to Dr. Fran- 
cis Turner, lately Bishop of Bochester, who had been 

* The letter above is edited by Mr. Singer, among the letters and 
journals of Henry, Earl of Clarendon. 



TRELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 371 

preferred to Ely, entreating his intercession with the 
offended primate, and signifying his intention to 
accept Bristol, and betraying fears of losing it. 

" My Lord, 

" I humbly desire your lordship to become my 
patron to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in averting 
his grace's displeasure from me for not being more 
forward to go into that great honour his Majesty hath 
been pleased to design me to, his grace to allow of, 
and to which I hope God himself hath called me. 

"My lord, had this delay proceeded from any 
slight to the meanness of the revenue, and regret 
that my lot had not fallen into a better soil, I should 
have been so far from presuming to address your 
lordship for your application to his grace in my be- 
half, and from imploring his grace's pardon, that I 
should have forbad myself the hopes of it, and not 
have dared to have asked it of his grace or your lord- 
ship ; but since it is owing wholly to necessity, I have 
the confidence to believe I may be suffered to make 
at least that advantage of it, to gain a full pardon for 
the supposed crime, and compassion of those circum- 
stances which forced it. 

"Your lordship must needs know the income of 
Bristol is too mean to give a man credit for so large 
a sum as is required before I can be seated there, and 
the condition of my estate will not easily help me to 
it. However, I have so managed my affairs as to be 
able shortly after Michaelmas to master the expenses 
at and previous to the consecration ; so that now the 
sharpest pain I am under is the sense I have of his 



372 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

grace's resentments, which, if your lordship can mo- 
derate, you will do a very charitable office, in giving 
me peace at home, by assuring it to me from his 
grace. 

" My lord, give me leave to say that it shall be, in 
great measure, his grace's and your lordship's fault if 
I do not come up to that expectation which will fol- 
low from my being clothed with that sacred and 
weighty order of a bishop ; for I am resolved, by 
prayers and earnest application, to use my best en- 
deavours to come up to the fulness of his grace's and 
your lordship's commands, strictly to observe and 
execute all orders and directions which shall be 
vouchsafed, either as a rule to my own behaviour or 
that of those committed to my care and observance. 
I most earnestly beseech your lordship's prayers, as 
well to bless my endeavours as your counsel to direct 
them. And let me add this, that whatever imperfec- 
tions and failures human nature may subject me to, 
it shall not make me fail in any part of the obedience 
enjoined me by his grace or your lordship. I desire 
your lordship to render my duty acceptable to his 
grace, and to believe me to be, with all truth, my 
lord, 

" Tour lordship's 

" Most devoted humble servant, 

"J. Trelawny.* 
66 Trelawne, September 22nd" 

Up to this period the Kev. Sir Jonathan Trelawny 
had attained no higher degree than M. A. ; but on his 

* Tanner, xxxi. 207. 



TEELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 373 

acceptance of the see of Bristol, King James, by 
royal diploma, required the University of Oxford to 
confer the dignity of Doctor of Divinity upon him, 
which was done October the 26th. He was conse- 
crated Bishop of Bristol, November 9th, at Lambeth 
Chapel, by Archbishop San croft, and had the honour 
of being introduced into the House of Peers by Ken, 
Bishop of Bath and Wells. 

Trelawny had behaved so unclerically in his exer- 
tions to put down the Monmouth rebellion, that he 
had flattered himself with anticipations of a very 
rich reward for his active zeal from King James. 
Consequently he never forgave him the leanness of 
the see of Bristol, but assumed an ultra-Protestant 
tone in all his sayings and doings. 

After taking possession of his see, and diligently 
noting all the shortcomings of his predecessors, he 
withdrew for a season from his episcopal labours to 
refresh himself at Trelawne, his paternal inheritance, 
whence he wrote a long account to Sancroft of his 
observations during his late visitation. 

" The chiefest neglects," he says, " w 7 hich I found 
were the backwardness of people to be confirmed, oc- 
casioned by the neglect of constantly instructing the 
children in the words and meaning of the Church cate- 
chism ; the ill custom of private christenings, through 
the minister's compliance with the richer sort of their 
parish ; the disuse of visiting the sick at their houses, 
proceeding chiefly from the custom, which is very 
frequent, of reading most part of the form of the visi- 
tation of the sick when they are prayed for in the 



374 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

church ; the confused and irregular way of reading 
the prayers, in some ministers, either through their 
own dissatisfaction at them, or fear of others dissatis- 
fied with them ; and the ill condition which most of 
the churches were in, by reason the parishes are not 
put in mind, or else unwilling to assess themselves 
for their reparation. The ministers, of whose faults 
in their disordered reading and praying I could make 
myself acquainted from good hands, I have taken 
care to punish, and I hope to their amendment. 

" And now, having done with the affairs of my own 
diocese, I beg leave to tell your grace (who, I am 
sure, must own yourself the defender of the Church 
and all the bishops) what I observed at Salisbury. 

"By reason of the dean's supporting the choir 
against the bishop, there is a scandalous neglect in 
their performance of the service. The day I rested 
in the town, the singing men refused to sing an 
anthem which was then desired by the bishop's 
nephew and Canon Hill, and in the afternoon the 
organist (which they say happens often) was absent, 
and the prayers performed without the organ. I 
cannot suppose this as done to me, being a stranger 
to them, but wholly intended to the bishop, to whom 
I made my visit as being his friend. 

" I find in Dorsetshire that the Dean of Sarum has 
many peculiars, but whether through his indisposi- 
tion or temper I know not ; they were never visited 
by him, and are the most factious, not to say worst, 
places in the country. I need not instance in any 
other than Lime and Bemister, though others are 
very ill, to the occasioning, if not of example, yet, 



TBSLA.WNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 375 

at least, of excuse, which I met with from some 
of my clergy, who would have extenuated their 
own faults by the practice of their neighbours in 
these peculiars. 

" Having laid these things before your grace, I 
will only further beg the continuance of your direc- 
tions and advice, with your constant prayers for 

" Your grace's 

" Most dutiful and obedient servant, 

" J. Bristol.* 
» Trelaume, June 1st, 1686." 

To do Sir Jonathan justice, he agreed far better 
both with the dean and chapter and the corporation 
of Bristol than either of his episcopal predecessors 
had done. But whenever he found that stormy city 
waxing warmer than was agreeable, he rushed down 
to his pleasant family residence at Trelawne till all 
was calm again. fSometimes he considered it neces- 
sary to frame a plausible reason to the primate for 
his frequent retreats to the more congenial atmo- 
sphere of Cornwall. 

On one occasion he seems to consider the proba- 
bility of a general election rendered it his imperative 
duty to fix himself at Trelawne, to withstand the in- 
fluence of the lord-lieutenant of the county, and 
encourage the gentry to act with proper indepen- 
dence in returning good churchmen for members. 

The following letter, though undated, is well worthy 
of attention : — 

* Tanner "MSS.. xxx. 



376 lives of the seven bishops. 

"May it please your Grace, 

" Having this opportunity of my cousin Tre- 
lawny (the bearer) going to London, I held myself 
obliged to present you with my duty, and the reason 
of my coming into my country. We have had fre- 
quent alarms that a parliament is speedily intended, 
to which Cornwall sends forty-four [members]; and 
knowing myself to have a good interest in the gentry, 
I was resolved to see what inclinations they had, and 
what courage to support them in case of an attack 
from the lord-lieutenant ; and I was glad to find the 
gentry unanimous for the preserving the Test and our 
laws ; and what pleased me much, resolved to appear 
in their several corporations, and not suffer so many 
foreigners to be put upon them, as were returned 
hence by the wheedle of the Earl of Bath, the lord- 
lieutenant, whom now they will attend in a body 
upon his coming into the country, and, with the 
decency of a compliment, desire that they them- 
selves may be permitted to serve the king in parlia- 
ment ; which, if his lordship will not yield to, but 
answer that he has the king's command for the re- 
turn of such as his Majesty named to him, the gentry, 
at least a great part of them, will attest their parti- 
cular intentions in such boroughs as have depen- 
dences upon them, and try whether the Earl of Bath 
will, with a high hand, turn out such mayors and 
magistrates as will not comply with his nominations, 
disoblige the gentry, and endanger the kingdom. I 
have one thing more to acquaint your grace ; that 
being with several of our gentry when the news came 
that the several lord-lieutenants should call together 



TRELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 377 

their respective deputies and the justices of their 
counties, and know of them whether they would or 
w r ould not take off the Test ; my opinion was that 
they should not give a plain answer whether they 
would or would not, but only in general, that if they 
were chosen they would be governed by conscience 
and reason ; for should they say downright they would 
not take off the laws and the Test, there would be a 
positive command that all such as had declared them- 
selves of that opinion should not be chosen. I am, 

" Your grace's 

" Most dutiful servant, 

"J. Bristol."* 

The expected parliament was not called, so the 
Eight Eev. Sir Jonathan Trelawny, after a long 
pause returned to Bristol, to attend to the affairs of 
his see, instead of the more racy occupation of elec- 
tioneering. He was visited by Bishop Ken in March, 
by whom he wrote the following letter to Sancroft, 
giving some account of his differences with that 
notorious busy-body, Sir John Knight : — 

" May it please your Grace, 

" My very good friend, the Bishop of Bath and 
Wells, giving me the favour of his company here, 
and withal of letting me know he is going hence for 
London, I should have been very uneasy had I parted 
with him before I had put into his hands this address 
of my duty to your grace, and the assurance that I 

* Tanner, xxviii. 139. 



378 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

am not wanting in my prayers for the preservation 
of our threatened Church, and in my best exhorta- 
tions for the keeping this city very firm to its estab- 
lishments ; and I thank God hitherto all the designs 
of addresses and other prejudices have fallen like 
water upon oil-cloth, smoothly received, and going 
off without making any impression. 

"Having given your grace this faithful assurance 
of my own and this city's steadfastness, I shall take 
the confidence of laying before you the enclosed 
opinions, to satisfy you of the mistaken complaint 
Sir John Knight troubled your grace with this last 
summer, against Mr. Eainsthorpe, a prebendary of 
this cathedral, for holding two livings in this city, 
and to justify myself for suffering him to hold them ; 
and because I would be sure of his capacity by the 
laws, I took the opinions of Dr. Jones, my chancellor, 
in the civil, and of Mr. Pollexfen in the common-law ; 
and though both could not quiet the unreasonable 
scruples of Sir John Knight, they shall me, if your 
grace acquiesceth in them. Could I eject Mr. Eains- 
thorpe, it must be of the living to which this city is 
patron, and Mr. Wade, the town-clerk, would not slip 
the opportunity for the having Father Petre's recom- 
mendation of a priest to gain Popery an interest here, 
which wants a maintenance to encourage the footing, 
as well as a number to give any countenance to the 
abode of a priest among them. And I think this 
is not a time to make gaps for a busy enemy, who 
is too forward to force breaches where he has no 
invitation. I'll do all I can to keep the priests hence : 
no courage shall be wanting ; and if I err in prudence 



TEELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 379 

and conduct it must be your grace's and my order's 
fault in not helping me with directions, having reso- 
lutions entirely fixed not to do anything which may 
reflect on the interest or honour of our Church, in 
which as I had the blessing of initiation by the bap- 
tism of water, I am ready to go out of it with the 
other of blood. I desire your grace's prayers, and 
to believe me ; as I am, 

" Your grace's 

" Very dutiful servant, 

" March 20th, 1686." * J$ Bristol -* 

Trelawny found it as difficult a matter to deal 
with Sir John Knight as ever Lake had done ; for Sir 
John would interfere in ecclesiastical arrangements 
over which he had no other control than his incorri- 
gible love of meddling. He treated the legal opinions 
of Dr. Jones and Mr. Pollexfen with contemptuous 
disregard, defied the bishop, and bent all his ener- 
gies to the object on which he had set his mind — 
of expelling Eainsthorpe from one if not both of his 
livings. He pestered Sancroft with letters on the 
subject, and misrepresented the replies so as to per- 
suade the citizens of Bristol that the primate re- 
garded Eainsthorpe as an intruder who had no 
claim to receive the wages of the Church. At the 
end of the year we find the Eight Eeverend Sir Jona- 
than still battling the point with Sir John Knight, 
without any chance of settling the dispute. 

In a letter to Sancroft, complaining of the con- 

* Tanner, xxix. 147. 



330 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

duct of Sir John Knight in this affair, the bishop 
recommends his chaplain for preferment, and makes 
piteous complaints of his own want of means to 
reward his faithful services. 

"Let me beseech your grace's favour," he says, 
" to Mr. Jeames, my chaplain, if anything falls with- 
in your disposal not worth the acceptance of such 
to whom relation or service may render it due. He 
hath been with me ever since I came to this see, and 
I have nothing in my power wherewith to acknow- 
ledge his services. He hath really been very useful 
to me in keeping this city in the order and upright- 
ness in which hitherto I have held it, maugre very in- 
dustrious endeavours, and a charge to a purpose I 
hope will never be accomplished. I do not regret 
the expense of my residence, though it hath exceeded 
1500?. more than my income, the city and the con- 
flux being great. But it does grieve me that I can- 
not make any suitable return to his services, so much 
as by the prospect of a reversion. I do therefore the 
more presume to implore your grace's kindness in 
case of the refusal of those who may have a title to 
it, and you will not be so much his patron as mine." 

Many of Trelawny's letters are lively, energetic, 
and powerfully written, especially that in which he 
describes the state of Bristol, and alludes to the 
attempts that had been made on his life by an inimi- 
cal brother. 

" The fanatics here," he says, " are very numerous, 
and their meetings great and frequent, but chiefly of 
women and of the meaner sort of people ; those of the 



TRELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 381 

better rank, even among the Presbyterians, as yet re- 
fusing to contribute any money to the building of their 
meeting-houses, and their company to the filling them. 
And some of them have been very angry with their 
teacher, Weekes, for putting their hands to the 
address without their knowledge or leave to do so. 
The magistracy of this city are wholly averse to the 
fanatical mode of addressing, and one of them assures 
me, ' if offered from above it will be rejected.' My 
clergy, God be thanked, bravely refused it, only two 
in Dorsetshire giving their hands to it. The one is 
Pelham, the son of a Cromwellian major, and he did 
so out of a natural hatred of the Church, and to show, 
though he lived by her, he was not so truly hers as his 
father's son. The other subscriber was a curate to a 
person who I hope will prevent my dismission of him. 
" I have given God thanks for this opportunity the 
begging address hath given me of declaring to the 
public that I am firmly of the Church of England, 
and not to be forced from her interest by the terrors 
of displeasure or death itself, which some are endea- 
vouring should befal me from the hand of an un- 
natural brother, whose liberty is now laboured from 
that imprisonment to which he was confined for his 
often attempts on my life. But the same God who 
hath wonderfully delivered me from him I trust will 
still deliver me, especially if my safety shall be re- 
commended to the Almighty by the prevalence of 
your prayers, which are earnestly desired by 

" Tour grace's 

" Most obedient servant, 

"July 1st, 1687." " J ' Bristol - 



382 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

Notwithstanding the chivalric loyalty of his noble- 
minded father, and the affronts the young lady of 
Trelawne had endured from the Orange hero, and 
her insulting expulsion from the Hague, the Eight 
Beverend Sir Jonathan Trelawny had become an 
adherent and secret correspondent of the Orange 
faction. 

During the momentous interview with the sove- 
reign, when the petition was presented, Sir Jonathan 
did not comport himself with the dignity of his epis- 
copal brethren ; for when King James termed the 
petition a standard of rebellion, he fell down on his 
knees, exclaiming — 

" Kebellion, sire ! I beseech your Majesty do not 
say so hard a thing of us, for God's sake ! Do not 
believe we are or can be guilty of rebellion ! It is 
impossible for me or any of my family to be guilty of 
rebellion ! Your Majesty cannot but remember that 
you sent me to quell the Monmouth rebellion, and I 
am as ready to do what I can to quell another."* 

To a cousin of Burnet, one of the Johnstone family, 
he is reported to have said, while the matter was 
pending, " If King James sends me to the Tower, I 
know the Prince of Orange will come and take me 
out." 

After the acquittal and enfranchisement of the 
seven bishops, Mr. Henry Sidney, the English favou- 
rite of the Prince of Orange, came from Holland, 
ostensibly with " a compliment ' ; of congratulation 
from his master and mistress on the birth of the un- 
fortunate Prince of Wales. In reality, Henry Sidney 

* ' History of Cornwall/ by Gilbert, from MSS. of the Tre- 
lawny family. 



TRELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 383 

came to try who were disposed to raise the standard 
of revolution. Among others, he found Lord and 
Lady Churchill, and their intimate friend, Colonel 
Henry Trelawny, ready and willing to betray the 
king and to forswear his infant heir. Colonel Tre- 
lawny answered for his brother, Sir Jonathan, the 
Bishop of Bristol. The Tower lodgment and trial 
had of course plunged Sir Jonathan still deeper than 
ever in pecuniary embarrassments. The process of 
pulling down the king w r ho had not had " tender 
compassions on his slave " was by no means unpleas- 
ing, as the poor slave had had to accept Bristol, with 
only 300?. per annum, instead of Chichester, Peter- 
borough, or even Exeter, for which he had vainly 
sighed and vainly implored. 

He was one among the very few bishops who 
assisted at William and Mary's coronation ; then 
everybody saw that he and his colleague, Dr. Lloyd, 
Bishop of St. Asaph, swam with the revolutionary 
current. They had to endure the witty taunt of. the 
Royalists, " That King James had sent seven of his 
bishops to the Tower to be tested, that five had 
been proved pure gold, but that Sir Jonathan of 
Bristol and Dr. Lloyd of St. Asaph had turned out 
only prince's metal." 

The Bight Bev. Sir Jonathan was fiercely attacked 
in one of the libellous political squibs of the period, 
entitled 'The Tribe of Levi,' an evil ephemera of 
that era of unscrupulous abuse, written in bitter 
energetic verses by some clever but uncompromising 
partisan of the dethroned sovereign James II. against 
the seven bishops. It is rather curious that Sancroft 



384 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

and Trelawny are the only two with whose antece- 
dents the author appears in the slightest degree 
acquainted. For the sake of charity it is to be hoped 
he has exaggerated the vengeful doings of Trelawny 
at the Monmouth rebellion, for which King James 
made so poor a return as the lean bishopric of 
Bristol. 

" Unhappy James, preposterous was the fate 

That brought on thee the clergy's frown and hate. 
* * * # # 

I'll mention but one more, and then have done, 

'Tis fighting Joshua, the son of Nun ! 

Though he to men of sense is a buffoon, 

He serves to make a spiritual dragoon ; 

What, though he cannot preach, or pray, or write, 

He 'gainst his country and his king can fight. 

What wonders in the field were lately done 

By fighting Joshua, the son of Nun ; 

He bravely Monmouth and his force withstood, 

And made the Western land a sea of blood ; 

There Joshua ,did his reeking heat assuage, 

On every sign-post gibbet up his rage ; 

Glutted with blood, a really Christian Turk, 

Scarcely outdone by Jeffreys or by Kirke. 

Yet now this priest is grown a rebel too, 

And what Monmouthians did is doing now ; 

Since he, like theni, is equally to blame, 

Their fate was to be hanged, be his the same !" 

It is a stern comment on contemporary history, 
that neither the cruelty of Churchill, the activity of 
Jonathan Trelawny, nor the intrepid humanity of 
Ken, are even hinted at in the pamphlets published 
of the western rebellion, under the name ' Bloody 
Assizes/ or in the books of the paid partisan, Old- 
mixon| or his authority, the local writer, Atcherley. 
If Sir Jonathan himself had not boasted of his doings, 



TRELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 385 

who in the present day would have known aught 
about them ? 

Sir Jonathan hastened to gather in the reward of 
his painstaking in revolutionary affairs. He had the 
pleasure of realising his ardent aspirations for the 
see of Exeter. Only three days after the coronation 
of William and Mary, April loth, 1689, it was allotted 
to him, and his nomination by the new king was 
confirmed. Sir Jonathan of Bristol became Sir 
Jonathan of Exeter by favour of his old master's 
supplanters, and he set out in June, 1689, to take 
possession of the good things he had earned from 
them. In his progress to the great see of the west, 
he made a visitation to Exeter College, at Oxford, 
and very stormy was the reception he met with 
there. Exeter College was not only malcontent but 
mutinous, and his approach raised something like an 
insurrection, as the fellows were nearly divided for 
and against him. The rector of the college, Dr. 
Arthur Bury, with a strong party of the fellows 
hostilely encountered the Bishop in the open quad- 
rangle, and there protested vehemently against his 
nearer approach. As for " Sir Kingston," apparently 
the college chaplain, it must be said, par parentkese, 
he behaved too contumaciously to have his conduct 
entered into by the decorous pen of the pamphleteer 
who had the defence of the bishop printed at the 
press of the schools, Oxford.* 

Feuds ran awfully high, when the new bishop and 
his fellows, and the rector with all his refractory 

* Tracts, British Museum. Printed June, 1690. The events 
seem to have occurred the preceding year. 

2 c 



386 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

fellows got all together into the hall. Everybody's 
orthodoxy or moral character was impugned, and 
everybody had the advantage of having his sins con- * 
fessed in sonorous Latin very audibly by his neigh- 
bour. Much good ! Latin was likewise expended 
in tracts and handbills, which had been prepared 
for the arrival of the new bishop ; and vigorously 
all the fellows of Exeter scolded each other in 
that learned language. "'Twasn't decent," and 
"'Tisn't decent,", the favourite phrases of the his- 
torian 'Burnet, were the only attempts made at utter- 
ing our poor humble English. Whig or Jacobite 
was in every individual's heart, party rage loured on 
every brow, while sins against orthodoxy, and lower 
scandals even, were shouted by every tongue. 

To do Bishop Sir Jonathan Trelawny justice, he 
conducted himself in the midst of the uproar in the 
most gentlemanly manner. The only interruption 
he gave to Dr. Arthur Bury, who had some very 
vituperant Latin protest to read against his authority, 
was to request him to sit down instead of standing 
while he read it in the hall. But sturdy Arthur 
Bury refused the courtesy with the following rather 
neat repartee — "No, I will stand by what I say." 
Yet, soon after, placing the protestation in the hands 
of one of the fellows of his party to read, he flung 
contemptuously out of the hall. So mighty a con- 
fusion of tongues then ensued, that very little could 
be heard of what the reading " fellow " had to utter. 
Such is a slight specimen of the squabbles which 
were of every day occurrence among a divided peo- 
ple. There was no outward protest against the 



TRELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 387 

royalty of the sovereigns who placed Sir Jonathan 
Trelawny in episcopal authority, but shrewd signs 
were given of deep and bitter discontent. 

The great family influence he had in the west 
insured Sir Jonathan better welcoming in his city of 
Exeter ; but, after all, his much-coveted see comprised 
no little personal danger. For in the succeeding 
summer the victorious French fleet rode unopposed 
down the Channel, and, according to Narcissus Lut- 
trell's dull diary, French ships threatened the western 
coast from the Start Point between Dartmouth and 
Plymouth. The country people had to watch night 
and dav lest thev should make descents. General 
Trelawmy, one of the bishop's brothers, guarded 
Bristol with three regiments. His right reverend 
brother had to take care of Exeter as well as he 
could. Such employment was more in unison with 
his natural vocation than things spiritual, and no 
enemy made any inbreak on the temporalities under 
his guardianship. 

The disgraceful quarrels between 3Iary and Anne, 
the daughters, and William and George, the sons- 
in-law of the exiled king, broke out into open en- 
mity in the winter of 1691-2. The house of Tre- 
lawny sided with the Princess Anne ; her favourite's 
husband, Lord Churchill, who had been rewarded 
with court places and the earldom of 3Iarlborough, 
was unexpectedly deprived of his post as lord-in- 
waiting, and his follower, Harry Trelaw r ny, shared 
his disgrace. 

Of Sir Jonathan Trelawny's ecclesiastical acts as 
Bishop of Exeter, one onlv has survived him, his no- 

2 D 



388 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

tation of his re-consecration of his own old chapel at 
Trelawne, which had been the place of devotion for 
his ancestors since the time when it was rebuilt in 
Henry VI.'s reign. Surely to re-consecrate a place, 
consecrated by so many ages of family prayer, was a 
work of supererogation. He did it, however, accord- 
ing to the inscription therein, with much solemnity, 
on Sunday, November 23rd, 1701. 

The accession of Queen Anne, and the triumphant 
career of his friends, the Marlboroughs, with their 
faction, brought new hopes and honours to Sir Jona- 
than. The mighty see of Winchester became vacant 
by the death of Bishop Mew, and this favourite of 
fortune was blessed with the luckiest translation he 
had yet experienced. 

Sir Jonathan Trelawny was declared Bishop of 
Winchester, June 3rd, 1707, and was consecrated and 
took the oaths as such, June 14th, at Bow Church, 
Cheapsicle, " which," says Burnet, " gave great disgust 
to many, he being considerable for nothing but his 
birth and his election interest in Cornwall. The lord- 
treasurer had engaged himself to him, and was sen- 
sible that he was much reflected upon for it ; but he, 
to soften the censure that was brought on him, had 
promised that for the future preferments should be 
bestowed on men well principled to the present con- 
stitution and on men of merit."* 

Prelate of the Order of the Garter is a dignity 
attached to the great see of Winchester, and the 
insignia of that splendid order is always worn with 
the episcopal robes, giving unwonted richness to the 

* Burnet's ' History of the Keign of Queen Anne.' 



TRELAWNYj BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 389 

sober vestments of our Church. We think the broad 
ribbon of blue is much nearer to the original azure of 
the Plantagenet Order than is seen on the knights 
since the Hanoverian dynasty altered the colour to 
a darker hue. From this ribbon depends an effigy 
in gold of St. George on horseback killing the dragon, 
richly enamelled in their colours " proper." 

Trelawny, as Bishop of Winchester, preached a 
thanksgiving sermon at St. Paul's, November 12th, 
before Queen Anne and both Houses of Parliament, 
for the successes that had been granted her Majesty's 
forces, both by land and sea, under the command of 
the Earl of Marlborough, her general in the Low 
Countries, and Sir George Eooke, her admiral at Vigo. 
Also for the recovery of his Royal Highness Prince 
George of Denmark from a dangerous illness. The 
sermon, from Joshua xxii., was published by her 
Majesty's especial command. 

This prelate had an inveterate habit of swearing, 
for which he was one day reproved by a less fortu- 
nate member of the Church, who told him " it was 
very unbecoming in a bishop to swear." " I do not 
swear as bishop," rejoined the right reverend violator 
of the third commandment, with shameless facetious- 
ness ; " when I swear it is as Sir Jonathan Trelawny, 
a country gentleman and a baronet." The year after 
Sir Jonathan's great preferment, he made an altera- 
tion, doubtful as to its wisdom, in the customs of the 
famous school at Winchester. Surely, a boy might 
make his own bed, and yet not be " servile," sweep 
away a little dust, and yet not be " foul." The bishop 
had better have charged tneir warden to see that they 



390 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

performed their purifications effectually. Here are 
his ideas on the subject : — 

" Letter of Trelawny, Lord Bishop of Winchester, to 
the Warden of Wykeham School. 

"Sept. 16*A, 1708. 

" When I was last at Winchester I thought it would 
be much for the health and cleanliness of the children 
of the college that there should be bedmakers ap- 
pointed by the warden for them, and the children be 
relieved from the servile and foul office of making 
their own beds and keeping their chamber clean. 
And also that during the winter half year, between 
Michaelmas and Lady-day, they should not be obliged 
to rise before six o'clock in the morning." 

The rebuilding of the episcopal palace at Winches- 
ter, which was commenced by Bishop Morley, was 
finished by Sir Jonathan Trelawny with great mag- 
nificence during his episcopate. He likewise erected 
in the cathedral a vast throne of Grecian architecture 
for his own especial use, and a pulpit to correspond. 
Both of them were ostentatious blots, taking up more 
room than their share in Winchester Cathedral. Un- 
fortunately, the Grecian style of architecture is still 
less in harmony with that of Gothic in dark wood 
than in stone. Most of these anomalies have, by the 
better taste of the present day, been expelled. The 
throne and pulpit of Sir Jonathan were removed 
from Winchester Cathedral, and have been replaced 
by those in present use, which, though modest in size 



TEELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 891 

and appearance, are exquisite in carving and design, 
and withal beautifully harmonious with all around. 
The said throne and pulpit of the Eight Eeverend 
Sir Jonathan Trelawny were carefully stowed away 
in the depositorium for the lumber ecclesiastical 
of the last two centuries, within the sacred precincts 
of Winchester. 

Dr. Atterbury dedicated his sermons to Bishop Tre- 
lawny, and the fact bears peculiar significance. Atter- 
bury speaks thus of his former co-collegian : — 

* He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, wiiere 
he had those principles instilled into his mind which, 
whosoever has once imbibed, seldom forsakes ; and 
whosoever forsakes not, must inevitably adhere to 
the interests of the Church and monarchy." 

The bishop spent much of his time, particularly in 
the decline of his life, at his own hereditary family 
seat in Cornwall. Its natural advantages and many 
centuries of cultivation have made it truly delicious, 
although most of the venerable antiquities, as the 
gate-house of Henry V., the terraces and castellated 
turrets, have disappeared, according to the hateful 
taste of the last century. 

Sir Jonathan Trelawny married Eebecca, co-heiress 
of Thomas Hele, of Bascombe, Devon, by whom he 
had a large family. Four sons and three daughters 
were married ; they were brought up in wealth and 
ease. His sons were amply gifted by fortune and by 
nature, and had rich sinecures both in Church and 
state ; yet in two descents every male heir of the 
right reverend baronet failed. 

Sir Jonathan died at Trelawne, July 19th, 1721, 



392 LIVES OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 

at the age of 71. The bishop-baronet was buried at 
Trelawne. His coffin, of very great size, is in the 
vaults there. The plate is inscribed with the 
words — 

SIR JONATHAN TRELAWNY, 

EIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, 

LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. 

If he had any other funeral memorial, we have not 
yet discovered it. There is no monument to him at 
Winchester or Farnham. Granger gives him the 
following eulogium : — " He was friendly and open, 
generous and charitable, a good man and a good 
companion." The latter part of the panegyric in 
Granger's time too often signified that, like Arch- 
bishop Seeker, he was a u boon companion." 

The traditions of Trelawne affirm that his two 
daughters lived with him. One of them was de- 
formed, so much so, that when she died her corpse 
was placed in a square box instead of a coffin. But 
however unkindly dealt with by nature, she was an 
angel of kindness and charity, for the memory of her 
goodness yet liveth. Letitia, her sister, the beauty 
of the West, still lives in her exquisite portrait — 
bright dark eyes, ebon hair, ivory complexion, and 
slender form, agree with her appellation of "the 
beauty of the West." Many of her letters are extant. 
She signs herself " Myrtilla," an affected sentimen- 
tality among young ladies of that era. 

Trelawne is situated in one of the most beautiful 
districts in England for scenery, about three miles 
from the Leuve river. The view down the valley of 
Trelawne Mill is exquisite. In the drawing-room are 



TRELAWNY, BISHOP OF BRISTOL. 393 

to be seen many fine portraits, at a time when por- 
trait-painting was at its height. A portrait of the 
bishop, by Kneller, is there, and without the disguis- 
ing wig, afterwards universal. Sir Jonathan resided, 
when required to be near London, at the episcopal 
palace at Chelsea, now in the dust. We saw the last 
of it in 1841. 

An incident which has lately occurred revived for 
a short time the long-forgotten memory of the lord 
bishop Sir Jonathan Trelawny. The present Sir 
John Trelawny, well known for his parliamentary 
agitation concerning church rates, politely requested 
that the throne erected by the Eight Eeverend Sir 
Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Winchester, might be 
consigned to him. His desire was courteously com- 
plied with by the dean and chapter, and Sir John 
Trelawny is in actual possession of the throne of his 
maternal ancestor, the last survivor of the seven 
bishops of the Tower. 



THE END. 



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